Stoner Edges Pedrosa in Jerez First Practice

The first practice session at Jerez this Friday brought nothing new under the clear blue sky, as Honda continued to show its strong pace by taking the top 2 positions in the timing reports. And it was again Casey Stoner to score the best lap time of the 45 minutes of action, topping teammate Dani Pedrosa by only 0.028 seconds.

Stoner climber on top of the classification from the early stages of FP1, but Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo did not take long to challenge his lap times. The Australian fought back and again took the lead, after which he battled teammate Pedrosa for the top position throughout the remaining minutes of action.

The surprise of the day was provided by Ducati's Valentino Rossi, who managed a great 3rd place in the timing charts, a little over half a second behind pace-setter Stoner. Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncellu produced the 4th best time of the morning session, while Lorenzo failed to improve on his early fast lap to finish 5th overall.

Honda's 3rd driver Andrea Dovizioso was the only rider to finish within a second from Stoner, in 6th place, while followed by Yamaha's Ben Spies, Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards, Pramac Ducati's Randy de Puniet and Rossi's Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden.

Standing in for injured Alvaro Bautista and returning to MotoGP action after 2 years outside the series, Californian rider John Hopkins did not manage to pass anyone in the timing reports, but was only two tenths of a second slower than 16th placed Loris Capirossi.