MotoGP – Phillip Island FP2 – Stoner before the flood (and flying to the ground)

Two protagonists at Phillip Island: Casey Stoner, it couldn't be otherwise, and the rain. The second free practice session in the Australian afternoon offered 50 minutes of entertainment and a dozen (perhaps less) of intense rain, enough to mess up the work of the top class teams. 15 minutes from the checkered flag a downpour of rain heralded the universal deluge, only to then see the sun shine with everyone on the track passionately. Tests influenced by changing climatic conditions, not compromised in being able to identify the real values ​​in the field on the Victoria track. Casey Stoner, look, he seemed to be from another planet, more than the 2 tenths given to Melandri thanks to the time of 1'31"266 (worse than the morning), more than half a second to Daniel Pedrosa, busy leading a Honda RC212V visibly dancing (one could say "undriveable" without falling into the ridiculous), far from comfortable in the holes of turn 12. Stoner did not miss anything on his home track: best time, extraordinary race pace, a fall. Yes, it hadn't happened since time immemorial, but the World Champion slipped when, 4 minutes before the checkered flag, everyone got back on track shortly after the storm. At the Honda corner the Ducatista lost the front of his Desmosedici and found himself on the ground, "arm in arm" with Chaz Davies who had fallen shortly before. The two, great friends since their 250cc days, returned to the pits for a walk, chatting cheerfully, looking for an explanation for what had happened, soon joined by Alex Barros who, after a "straight", had the brilliant idea of ​​giving gas on the wet grass.

Returning to the news of the session, Marco Melandri surprised everyone when, returning to the track at the end, he set the second fastest time, just over two tenths behind his future teammate Stoner. Great performance for the Ravenna native, as well as Pedrosa for the reasons mentioned above; behind the Catalan we find Valentino Rossi: 648 thousandths behind the Australian, a good race pace (in the low 1'32s), a Yamaha no longer a black sheep in terms of top speeds, with only a 6 km/h gap compared to the Desmosedici #27 despite the abandonment of the pneumatic valve engine. Behind a Rossi dressed in Abarth colors comes Randy De Puniet, followed by Alex Barros, Carlos Checa, Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden, ninth at 1"030 from the top.

Tenth time for Anthony West (who celebrates his home GP with a new helmet with the dominant red), only 14th for Chris Vermeulen on the Suzuki with the historic colors of Barry Sheene. For the Hamamatsu manufacturer it was an anonymous Friday on a track where quite a few problems had already been encountered during the winter tests, in particular due to the wear of the Bridgestone tyre. So ready for the rain dance at the blue box-in-box: Stoner would probably be fine with it anyway.

Alessio Piana