Casey Stoner fast straight out of the box

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner has set the fastest time of the first practice session at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, the opening round of the 2012 championship.

Under the lights at Losail, the Repsol Honda rider set the benchmark time of 1:56.474 in the opening 45-minute session of the weekend aboard the new 1000cc machines.

The Australian did not have it all his own way, as the leading spot changed hands a few times in the closing minutes of the session, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) being one rider who led before settling in second at just 0.174s off Stoner with a 1:56.648.

“The track tonight wasn’t so bad, I expected the conditions to be much worse but in general it was OK,” said Stoner.

“We started this evening with huge chatter issues and I was a little afraid we couldn’t fix this but after a few more exits we managed to reduce it to a more comfortable level.

“This is a positive point for the weekend but with such a short session and then nothing until tomorrow it’s slightly strange. It was an OK start tonight, we finished quickest which is good but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for some real track time and with the conditions a little better and see where we are.”

Making it three different bikes in the top three Nicky Hayden rode his factory Ducati to a best time of 1:56.924, whilst Ben Spies on the second Yamaha Factory Racing machine was fourth and the final rider under 1:57”.

Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda) was just under seven-tenths of a second off his team-mate Stoner as the Spaniard ended the session fifth, and Cal Crutchlow put in an impressive showing on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine to secure the highest satellite position of sixth in a time of 1:57.395. The Brit was also the final rider to get inside a second off Stoner’s benchmark.

Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing), all riding for new teams in 2012, and Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) completed the top ten. The Italian was fractionally under a second off his team-mate Hayden.

The MotoGP bikes return to the track on later tonight for their second and third practice sessions.

COMMERCIALBANK GRAND PRIX OF QATAR : Free Practice #1

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Time
1	1	Casey Stoner	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:56.474
2	99	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	+ 0.174
3	69	Nicky Hayden	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	+ 0.450
4	11	Ben Spies	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	+ 0.508
5	26	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+ 0.656
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+ 0.921
7	19	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	+ 1.038
8	4	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+ 1.073
9	8	Hector Barbera	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	+ 1.438
10	46	Valentino Rossi	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	+ 1.440
11	17	Karel Abraham	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	Ducati	+ 1.465
12	6	Stefan Bradl	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	+ 2.460
13	14	Randy de Puniet	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	+ 3.511
14	5	Colin Edwards	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	Suter	+ 3.570
15	51	Michele Pirro	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	FTR	+ 3.848
16	41	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	+ 4.246
17	22	Ivan Silva	SPA	Avintia Blusens	BQR-FTR	+ 4.664
18	54	Mattia Pasini	ITA	Speed Master	ART	+ 4.787
19	68	Yonny Hernandez	COL	Avintia Blusens	BQR-FTR	+ 4.802
20	9	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda	+ 4.878
21	77	James Ellison	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	+ 6.947