The last four Australian GPs have been won by Casey Stoner. But this year, more than ever, he wants this victory. If he succeeds and defeats while Jorge Lorenzo can not win the podium, the title case is clear from Sunday.
In Friday's test, things worked out perfectly for Casey Stoner's only rider. Neither the cloudy nor the high temperatures prevented him from setting new limits for his teammates and breaking once more the timers. And imagine that in his statements, he described the track much more abnormal, his motorcycle far from being 100% efficient and other such oxymorons. It was followed by Simoncelli who, although he managed to drop twice on the tenth turn of the track, was typically fast.
Jorge Lorenzo came in third and with amazing familiarity with the Australian track showed that he will not let Casey Stoner take the title so easily. Bet365 gives him confidence for a podium, but something tells me that he will have a bigger lead, since like the whole year, but especially now, he does not want to go down in history as a random champion. Yamaha teammate Ben Spies came fourth, while Dani Pedrosa came fifth but with many problems on the track. Behind him are Hiroshi Aoyama (6th), Randy De Puniet (7th)th), Álvaro Bautista (8th), Colin Edwards (9th) and Andrea Dovizioso closed the top ten.
Indeed this year the track does not last year's asphalt and this is something that may be a problem for our riders. We will come back tomorrow with more data so we can get the first safe conclusions about how the Sunday race will evolve.