Stoner sets benchmark at Le Mans

Casey Stoner has will head into qualifying as the favourite for pole position after dominating the opening day of practice for the French Grand Prix.

The Australian broke the Le Mans practice record in the first session, before going faster again in the afternoon.

Stoner’s best for the day of 1:33.8s was enough to see him 0.8s clear of Marco Simoncelli, and 0.7s faster than Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Nicky Hayden has made a promising start to the weekend with fourth fastest on the factory Ducati, while Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, Colin Edwards, Hiroshi Aoyama, Valentino Rossi and Ben Spies round out the top 10.

Check out the video highlights

See below for the full Practice 2 result

1	Casey Stoner	Repsol Honda Team	1m33.782
2	Marco Simoncelli	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1m34.186	0.404
3	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	1m34.478	0.696
4	Nicky Hayden	Ducati Team	1m34.652	0.870
5	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	1m34.659	0.877
6	Andrea Dovizioso	Repsol Honda Team	1m34.705	0.923
7	Colin Edwards	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1m34.939	1.157
8	Hiroshi Aoyama	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1m34.959	1.177
9	Valentino Rossi	Ducati Team	1m34.966	1.184
10	Ben Spies	Yamaha Factory Racing	1m34.976	1.194
11	Randy De Puniet	Pramac Racing Team	1m34.998	1.216
12	Cal Crutchlow	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1m35.158	1.376
13	Loris Capirossi	Pramac Racing Team	1m35.383	1.601
14	Hector Barbera	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1m35.902	2.120
15	Alvaro Bautista	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1m35.992	2.210
16	Toni Elias	LCR Honda MotoGP	1m36.304	2.522
17	Karel Abraham	Cardion AB Motoracing	1m36.327	2.545