Rain hinders Stoner's test session
The Aussie was nobbled by inclement weather in Japan, and only completed six laps of the Motegi circuit in his MotoGP ‘comeback'Former MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner was back on top-flight grand prix machinery on August 6 as he began a two-day Honda Racing Corporation test at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. However, inclement weather conditions limited the Australian to only six laps.
The title winner of 2007 and 2011 hadn’t ridden a MotoGP bike since the season-ending race of 2012 in Valencia. On Tuesday, the plan was to re-familiarise himself with the 2013-specification RC213V before continuing development with the 2014 prototype as well as with several other test items, although the weather worked against the team.
"It was good to get back on the bike, if only for a few laps!" Stoner commented. "We only managed to get one run in before the rain arrived, which was disappointing.
"It was really nice to get that first run; it's been nine months since I've been on a bike and it's going to take me some time to get used to everything again! The bike and the track felt good and I hope that we can get some better testing in tomorrow with some dry track time and run some more laps."
Yamaha and Suzuki also had a presence at Motegi on Tuesday, while almost 9000km away Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi conducted a test session of their own at Brno in the Czech Republic.
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