Phillip Island, 14 October: sun shines in today’s Australian Grand Prix opening day at Phillip Island race track which hosts the penultimate over sea round of the championship and unthinkable ambience temperature of 21 degrees welcomed the MotoGP teams and riders this morning. Local hero Casey Stoner, who has his first chance to clinch the 2011 MotoGP World Championship, topped the time sheet on 1’30.535 while LCR Honda racer Toni Elias is making his 12th visit to the island, where he had success as a younger rider. He raced his RS125 Honda to third place in the 2001 125cc Grand Prix, a race in which he finished two places in front of his current team owner, Lucio Cecchinello.
The Spaniard riding the RC212V made the most from his machine lapping the ocean track 44 times and posting his best lap time on 1’32.639.
Elias – 16th – 1’32.639: “Well....first this sunny weather was a real surprise for everybody and today’s conditions were unexpected. So the track temperature was much higher than what we thought. Here on this track the key is the rear traction on left side out of the corners because it’s extremely important to find the right race tyre that does not spin so much. We have been working on that today to improve the rear grip and bike stability. We made an improvement in the second session and now we are working hard to take another step forward to close the gap to the front”.
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