Stoner takes First Blood at Donington Park Practice

Casey Stoner took the honour of being the fastest man on track at the Donington Park tracks on the Friday Practice sessions.

His preparations for the bwin.com British Grand Prix seem to be well and truly underway as he led the entire pack of riders and blitzed the time set for Colin Edward’s pole position last year.

The Ducati man produced a sensational ride on a successful practice day with a 1’28.253 second lap. He had over half a second over Nicky Hayden’s Repsol Honda. Stoner was last year’s winner at Donington Park and will be looking to repeat his feats from last year. After the display he has given at the tracks in the practice session, the chances for that happening seem extremely promising.

Currently placed fourth in the standings, Hayden has repaid Honda’s faith in letting him choose the pneumatic valve engine for his RC212V. Hayden was certainly quick and became the fastest rider of the day for the Repsol Honda team. He had been involved in testing the engine last week and in Catalunya, he finally made his peace with the fact that the engine was ready to give his 2008 campaign the boost that he expected it to. Valentino Rossi was third fastest onboard the Fiat Yamaha M1.

Last year’s podium finisher, Colin Edwards showed some of his old skill and raced his way to fourth quickest on the Yamaha machine. The American really likes the Donington Park track and that fact can be seen in the race pace that he set over the practice session.

Alex de Angelis was surprisingly placed at fifth fastest for the day, ahead of Daniel Pedrosa. He became the highest placed satellite rider and beat Pedrosa who was using a standard spring valve version of the RC212V engine and not the pneumatic one like his teammate, Nicky Hayden.

Pedrosa did take a fall during the morning session but returned in the afternoon with no visible signs of injuries. Shinya Nakano, James Toseland, Chris Vermeulen and Randy de Puniet completed the fastest ten riders in the combined standings, With Toseland getting to grips with his home track on board the second Tech 3 Yamaha machine.