Stoner stars in Qatar practice
The Aussie has delivered the goods in the first practice session for the Grand Prix of Qatar at the Losail International CircuitHonda-backed Aussie Casey Stoner has brought forward his superb form from the pre-season tests to the start of the Qatar MotoGP race weekend by dominating the opening practice session ahead of Saturday’s race.
It was all too easy for the 2007 world champion, who produced a best lap of 1:55.752, over 0.610 seconds faster than factory team-mate Dani Pedrosa.
But the real surprise of the session was Héctor Barberá, setting the third quickest lap of the 45-minute session on his Ducati.
All eyes were on the debut of Valentino Rossi (Ducati) riding on his Desmosedici GP11 for the first time in a competitive session. After some disappointing performances in pre-season testing, he was fifth fastest, just being edged out by fellow Italian Marco Simoncelli (Honda).
Current world champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) was 0.834 seconds off the fastest time set by Stoner and was one place behind team-mate Ben Spies.
The gap between second and eighth was just 0.230 seconds, showing how close the competition is throughout the field in MotoGP.
Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), Frenchman Randy de Puniet (Ducati) and American Colin Edwards (Yamaha) filled positions 8-10.
In Moto2, Queenslander Anthony West (MZ) laboured to 34th place in opening practice.
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