Rossi Edges Stoner in First Sepang Test Session

Nothing has changed in the MotoGP field following the first test of the season earlier this month, as the latest time reports from Sepang seem to confirm that it will come down to a Valentino Rossi – Casey Stoner fight for the world title in 2010.

The Italian rider from Yamaha managed to finish one more testing session ahead of the competition, ending the first session at the Malaysian circuit with the best time of 2:01.068. While slower than his personal best at Sepang three weeks ago, Rossi's performance was strongly challenged by Casey Stoner, who ended the day only 0.151 seconds behind the reigning MotoGP champion.

With Jorge Lorenzo missing out on this week's test due to a hand injury he picked up following a motocross incident and Dani Pedrosa falling off his bike early on and missing more than 2 hours of testing yesterday, the next best timed performance belonged to Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, who finished the day more than half of second behind Rossi.

The quad of aces was completed by Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, who managed to get ahead of Tech 3 duo Ben Spies and Colin Edwards by more than one tenth of a second. Despite missing a lot of the action from today's testing, Pedrosa completed the day with 47 laps ran and almost a second behind the leaders. The Top 10 was completed by Mika Kallio, Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri.

North American rider Nicky Hayden finished the day in 11th place – as he is recuperating from an early medical intervention this month – while Yamaha's replacements for Lorenzo, namely factory test riders Norihiko Fujiwara and Wataru Yoshikawa ended the day more than 3.5 seconds off pace.

01. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)                              2:01.068
02. Casey Stoner (Ducati)                                    2:01.219
03. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)                             2:01.631
04. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)                                 2:01.687
05. Ben Spies (Tech 3 Yamaha)                           2:01.843
06. Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha)                    2:01.897
07. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)                                   2:02.036
08. Mika Kallio (Pramac Ducati)                           2:02.038
09. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)                                 2:02.078
10. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda)                    2:02.086
11. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)                                    2:02.221
12. Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda)             2:02.419
13. Aleix Espargaro (Pramac Ducati)                   2:02.447
14. Hector Barbera (Aspar Ducati)                       2:02.485
15. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda)                       2:02.535
16. Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda)                  2:03.254
17. Norihiko Fujiwara (Yamaha)                           2:04.681
18. Wataru Yoshikawa (Yamaha)                         2:04.967