Stoner dominates Friday practice
Casey Stoner proved unstoppable in the opening practice session of the 2010 MotoGP season under the floodlights at Losail
Ducati rider Stoner has won the last three Qatar Grands Prix and was quickest in the final pre-season test of the winter at the track last month.
He only allowed arch-rival Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) a brief moment of glory at the start of this evening's session, and then beat Rossi's early benchmark by 0.6 seconds 12 minutes into practice.
That put the top two 2s clear of their rivals at the time, and Stoner then went faster still on his next run - getting down to 1m55.500s and pulling 0.9s ahead of even Rossi.
While Stoner came close to beating his benchmark several times on subsequent outings, Rossi kept chipping away by a few fractions of a second but could only get within half a second of the Ducati.
Then in the final two minutes the world champion lost his second place too, deposed by his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who snuck ahead by just 0.002s. The Spaniard then fell on his next lap, but immediately got up and appeared to have suffered no further damage to his injured right hand.
Honda's lead rider Andrea Dovizioso won a late battle for fourth with Nicky Hayden, who surged to fifth on the second Ducati, picking up huge amounts of speed late in the session having earlier been near the foot of the times. Dovizioso's team-mate Dani Pedrosa was only 11th, losing several places amid a late run of rapid laps from his rivals, as his problems from testing continued.
Superbike world champion Ben Spies began his first full season of MotoGP with a strong sixth for Tech 3 Yamaha, ahead of top 250cc graduate Alvaro Bautista in seventh. His Suzuki team-mate Loris Capirossi was 13th after suffering a low-side under braking 20 minutes from the end. The veteran Italian was unhurt.
Randy de Puniet was third for a while for LCR Honda and eventually ended up eighth, ahead of satellite Ducati pairing Mika Kallio (Pramac) and Hector Barbera (Aspar).
Pos Rider Team Time Gap 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m55.500s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m56.026s + 0.526s 3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m56.028s + 0.528s 4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m56.698s + 1.198s 5. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m56.793s + 1.293s 6. Ben Spies Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.818s + 1.318s 7. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 1m56.998s + 1.498s 8. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 1m57.031s + 1.531s 9. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati 1m57.059s + 1.559s 10. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 1m57.105s + 1.605s 11. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m57.133s + 1.633s 12. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m57.167s + 1.667s 13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m57.363s + 1.863s 14. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda 1m57.535s + 2.035s 15. Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati 1m57.605s + 2.105s 16. Marco Melandri Gresini Honda 1m58.035s + 2.535s 17. Hiroshi Aoyama Interwetten Honda 1m58.082s + 2.582s
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