Casey Stoner smashes Brno lap record

Casey Stoner obliterated his own Brno lap record with an impressive display during the opening day of testing in the Czech Republic.

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The Aussie, who is now 50 points adrift of Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi after crashing out of the lead in Sunday’s Brno race, clocked an impressive time of 1.56.261 on Bridgestone’s race tyres.

Evaluating new Bridgestone tyres and revised settings on his factory GP8 machine, Stoner said: “It was a really positive day. We didn’t have too much to test – a couple of new tyres and that’s about it – but we managed to find a new setting to improve on what was already a very good situation.

“I managed to drop my lap times by almost a second on yesterday and that’s really positive. Unfortunately my physical condition on Friday and the rain on Saturday meant that we didn’t head into the race in the best possible shape. In any case I’m happy because the things we’ve improved today will be useful for the upcoming races.”