Schumacher takes Stoner's Ducati for a spin
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has swapped four wheels for Australian Casey Stoner's MotoGP-winning Ducati.
World champion Casey Stoner handed over his MotoGP bike to formula one legend Michael Schumacher before showing the dominant form which won him the crown this season.
After Schumacher, the seven-time F1 world titleholder, blasted around the Valencia track on Stoner's Ducati 800 machine, the young Australian proceeded to smash his best race time. On the first day of post-season testing, Stoner refused to ease up, ending the session by slicing 0.4 seconds off his best race lap of 1:32.35.
Then, in characteristic form, he blasted the new test format which allowed a flock of 250cc riders on the circuit at the same time as the MotoGP bikes.
Schumacher, the former Ferrari ace and motorcycle fanatic, stunned observers when he wheeled Stoner's bike around Valencia in a time just five seconds outside the lap record set by Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, who won the Valencia GP on Sunday from Stoner. The German praised Stoner's season, in which he won 10 races, as "perfect".
"I am very impressed," Schumacher said. "If you remember that last year no one would have bet on him at all and Ducati took the risk to take him on board. Sure he got a good bike and there is the tyre situation, but he beat his teammate and other guys on the same tyres - so a big credit to him."
Schumacher rode a Ducati 990cc MotoGP bike in 2005 and was about 15 seconds off the pace.
"So I thought maybe if I could run within 10 seconds, that would be nice," he said.
