Donington Park MotoGP: Casey Stoner not as unhappy with Donington tarmac as Valentino Rossi

While Valentino Rossi was complaining of poor grip levels at the 2.5-mile Donington Park GP circuit after two practice sessions today, Casey Stoner reckons circuit organisers have improved the grip levels compared to last year.

Stoner, who set the fastest times in both practice session, over half a second quicker than the next man in both and with a best time of 1.28.253, said in some areas the circuit has improved.

He said: “I’m pleased that the circuit organisers have done some work to combat the terrible grip here from last year.

“To be honest in some areas it is a lot better than last year hilst in other patches it’s just as bad, but overall I think they’ve done a pretty good job.”

Yesterday Stoner spoke of an improvement the team had made with the bike and the engine management system to make it more rideable, and he said today that was the main reason behind his comfortable pace and dominance on the time screens.

“In the past few rounds we’ve had trouble getting power to the ground – every time I opened the throttle the bike wanted to buck and that made the chassis look a lot worse than it really is,” added the 2007 World Champion.

“The bike has never been slow and we’ve been running for podiums, which isn’t bad, but we always felt there was something missing.

“In the Barcelona test we tried something with the electronics that both Vito (Guareschi) and myself really liked straight away.

“It is great to see that the improvement has transferred here to Donington and I believe there is still more to come yet.”

The changes made to the engine management have not just been offered to Stoner but to the struggling Marco Melandri as well.

Bu according to Stoner, the Italian did not get on with the new setup.

He said: “Marco didn’t like it at all.

“I tested the new management at Catalunya but Marco had tested it before then and said he didn’t like it.

“The bike now feels more like it did at Qatar and in pre-season testing – like it did for the whole of 2007 – and I feel like I wasn’t even pushing that hard today so there’s a lot more to come.”