Lorenzo hails “impressive” and “unbelievable” Stoner

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Three-time champion Lorenzo said it was highly impressive to see test rider Stoner perform at a comparable level to that of his Ducati teammates Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso, who are racing fulltime for the Italian marque.

“It’s impressive, because he doesn’t have the confidence of a normal MotoGP rider, because he almost does not ride during the year,” said Lorenzo of Stoner, who won the MotoGP title twice before retiring at the end of 2012.

“And he’s at the level of Iannone and Dovizioso, so it’s impressive.

“But we don’t discover anything, no? The talent of Casey is unbelievable.”

Yamaha "still far from the pace"

Of his own performance on the second day of testing, ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix in August, Lorenzo was happier as he lapped within nine-tenths of the dominant Ducatis.

“We tried to improve our settings, and some things that we tried gave us more speed but we’re still far [away] from the pace,” said Lorenzo, who lapped in 1m24.194s.

“I didn’t make a very good lap time, I could be two or three tenths faster, but we’re still far.

“I lost confidence in one corner, where I almost crashed on the hard tyre, so I was very careful on the soft tyre in one corner. I could be [1m]23.9s. So, better than yesterday.”