Casey Stoner was on pace in the start of the practice session of the TIM TT Assen on Thursday, taking a best time only 0.011s off the leader Jorge Lorenzo, who headed the timesheet.

Adding to the steady improvements of some modifications to his front suspension, the Aussie feels he is gradually moving forward to the level he desires, however there is still more progress to be made.

“It’s been one part we’ve been struggling with this year and in the last few races that we have changed the fork we’ve made some good progress,” says Stoner. “The progress unfortunately has been a little bit slow. In Mugello we were never competitive, at Silverstone by race day we were feeling much better but then we weren’t able to make the start with the bike we had. So I’m a little disappointed because we should have had a podium result this year, quite a few I think, but it’s the way things have gone for us this season and we just need to keep focused for each race.”

He adds, “Today was no different. We made a few setting changes and improved the bike a little bit as the session went on, but we still have to make some more improvements. We’ll have a go tomorrow and see if we can make the bike turn a bit harder without losing too much traction in the rear, and we should be quite confident for the race.”

The Australian was satisfied with the changes to the Ruskenhoek turn at Assen, in which it has been shortened, and believes it suits his style better.

“The old corner where they have changed it now was probably the worst part of the track for me, and probably the worst part of the season!” Stoner continues. “The other bikes were able to run over the kerbs with a lot of confidence, and every time I tried to the bike wanted to highside me, so it was very difficult.

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Yamaha Motor Racing have announced their experienced test racer Wataru Yoshikawa will unite with the Fiat Yamaha squad for the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya on July 4th, taking the spot of World hero Valentino Rossi until the Italian is back to complete fitness after suffering a broken leg.

Yoshikawa will race Rossi’s YZR-M1 for the Italian’s team as part of the Fiat Yamaha garage, and is anticipated to join the squad for a minimum of three races, until more news of Rossi’s return.

Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing Srl, Lin Jarvis, states, “We have considered many different scenarios and candidate riders to fill the temporary vacant seat in the Fiat Yamaha Team. We had always planned to use a rider from within the Yamaha Motor & Tech 3 family but for each rider we considered who is in active competition, their move to the Fiat Yamaha Team would have created another problem for their own racing programme or for the teams in which they are engaged.”

“Finally, after a great deal of consideration, we have selected Wataru Yoshikawa, our Japanese YZR-M1 test rider, to join us as our substitute rider. We provisionally plan for three races (Catalunya, Sachsenring and Laguna Seca) but we will adjust the plan accordingly when we know more about Valentino's expected date of return.”

Yoshikawa has competed as a wildcard once before in MotoGP when he ended 12th at Motegi in 2002, he adds, "I'm happy to have this chance to stand in for Valentino while he is recovering and to compete in MotoGP again. Looking at the Fiat Yamaha Team results with the 2010 YZR-M1, I can see that the winter developments were correct and now I am looking forward to having the chance to gather some ‘real racing' data, which will be very helpful for the future development of the M1."

Jarvis welcomed the experience of the 41 year old Yoshikawa, he adds, “The benefit of Wataru's presence in our team will be threefold. Firstly he brings with him a wealth of experience riding the YZR-M1. Secondly his presence allows us to fulfil our contractual obligations and to join the team's quest to accumulate points for the Team Championship. Thirdly he will gain valuable first hand MotoGP race experience in three challenging circuits which will surely be very useful to assist him and Yamaha with the future development of the YMR-M1.

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Ducati Marlboro racers Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner were frustrated after ending fourth and fifth respectively at the AirAsia British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.

Hayden looked like he was going to appear on the stage and claim his first podium finish of the year as he was in third place on the final lap, but a small error from the American let Ben Spies through at Abbey Corner as he ended up fourth in the fourth event of the year.

“It’s a pretty frustrating result because the team did a great job with the bike after the warm-up and it was a lot of fun to ride,” explains Hayden. “Unfortunately I didn’t get a good start – we’ve been having some little clutch problems and didn’t get away well.”

“The race was really fun, everybody was going back and forth, I was able to make some moves in the corners but just didn’t really have the top speed in the straights. It’s hard for me to dress this result up because I’m not happy to finish fourth again but the good thing is we were in the hunt again. We did something good with the bike today so hopefully it will work at Assen, a circuit I love,” he adds.

Stoner fell ten places following a bad start to the race which made him drop to the back of the field as the racers went into the first corner, however an excellent ride from there onwards allowed the Aussie to finish fifth by the end.

“I’m not happy with fifth place because we were capable of more today,” states Stoner. “I don’t know if we could have challenged Jorge for the win but we definitely found something in warm-up and made more improvements in the race, but we paid the price for a terrible start. As I let the clutch out the bike started jumping and hopping around and I had to pull the clutch in and go again, by which time everybody was past.”

He adds, “The tyres were fresh on before the warm-up lap so in the early laps I had to be really careful before being able to start overtaking and I lost a lot of seconds.

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