Edwards fastest as MotoGP testing moves down under
The MotoGP testing period has moved from Malaysia to Phillip Island, Australia as the majority of the MotoGP grid resume their testing schedule. Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards set the fastest lap of day one with 1′29.566 about half a second quicker than Aussie Casey Stoner.
All three MotoGP rookies present in Philip Island posted top 5 times with Alex De Angelis 3rd fastest on his Gresini Honda, Dovizioso 4th fastest for the JiR Team and Tech 3 Yamaha rider James Toseland 5th fastest on one of the few GP tracks that he will already be familiar with.
The Philip Island testing is notable for a few absentees, obviously Dani Pedrosa is missing after injuring his hand in Sepang, the Fiat Yamaha team of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were also missing as the team decided against testing in Australia this week.
Marco Melandri had a confidence boosting 6th fastest lap time on the Desmosedici GP8 following a pretty slow testing period in Sepang. Nicky Hayden was 8th fastest putting in the most amount of laps than any of the other top riders, as he continues to test the RC212V. Once again the American tried both Honda’s latest pneumatic-valve engine and the conventional sprung-valve system, focusing on the conventional engine in the afternoon.
the rookies are not doing too bad …