MotoGP, Stoner: happy, but also disappointed

Stoner's presence at the Red Bull Ring test sessions had generated a great deal of interest and the Australian didn't disappoint. He was very fast, as demonstrated by his third place finish. If he chose to take part in a race, he'd be even more competitive, though this won't happen in Austria.

Who knows if there will be other occasions, but for now Casey is happy to ride his Ducati and make his contribution to development of the bike.

“We had quite a positive day but really didn’t get a lot of laps in because the Test Team had to put Michele Pirro on the bike to do some testing this afternoon - he explains - We did lots of short runs to change the bike all the time, did a couple of comparisons in the chassis, and we adjusted and moved everything around a bit to get the bike more stable under brakes on a good track."

The champion's instinct definitely hasn't left him though.

“Overall I’m happy and satisfied but also a bit disappointed towards the end because it was the first time I had to push in four years with a soft tyre and it didn’t go well as I crashed at Turn 6 - he says - I’m pretty happy with the hard tyre, and the bike felt good, even though in both days we were still using the previous chassis, but I think we can lap even better with the new version.”

A different task, but an equally productive one, for Andrea Dovizioso who worked in preparation for the race. The Forlì rider, 2nd, will surely leave Austria with a smile on his face.

“These were two days of very positive tests for us, we worked hard on many different aspects of the bike, as well as preparing for the race in the best possible way - he explains - Here we have been really competitive, it’s great to do two days of testing before the race because it gives you the chance of working on fine-tuning aspects and I know that we can still improve there."

Dovi can now relax somewhat ahead of the race.

"I am very pleased with my Desmosedici GP on this track, because we can exploit our potential to the maximum and I believe that we can be really competitive in the race” he concludes.