.jpg)
Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner kept up the torrid pace he’d set in pre-season testing by setting the fastest time in the first practice session of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship season on a cool night under the desert lights of the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
Stoner went straight to the top at the start of the extraordinary 45-minute Thursday night session, the first of four nights of practice, qualifying, and racing, and was never seriously challenged.
Teammate Dani Pedrosa quickly slotted into second and stayed there for the duration, though the interval grew and shrank. Stoner’s last lap of 1:55.752 was his best and lengthened the gap between himself and Pedrosa to .610 of a second. The time was only slightly off the 1:55.681 Stoner had run to claim top honors when the two-day test here in Qatar ended on Monday evening. Cycle News
However, it was Hector Barbera on the Mapfre Ducati who provided the biggest surprise, taking third place with his final run of laps to finish 0.669s behind Stoner and only two one-hundredths off the pace of Pedrosa works Repsol Honda.
Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli bagged fourth place with a late lap and the Factory Yamaha of Ben Spies eventually finished in sixth after being as high as third. The Texan was demoted one place by Rossi’s final circulation which was fast but one lap a race doesn’t make and endurance will be a factor for The Doctor.
Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo is seventh and eight-tenths off the pace with Andrea Dovizioso wondering in which direction his Repsol team-mates went. Randy De Puniet is ninth while Colin Edwards rounds out the top ten just a second or so off the pace. BSN
| 
|