As expected by most, championship leader Casey Stoner has topped the first practice session for this weekend’s Australian MotoGP. The Honda rider led at home track Phillip Island from title rival Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha, with the gap being a large three tenths of a second, as Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli rounded out the top three.
Despite his rapid pace, the 45-minute period was not all plain sailing for Stoner, who went down at Turn 4 within the first ten minutes. Establishing what seemed to be a tradition for any top three in this session, Simoncelli then lost control at Turn 10. However, Champion elect Stoner still led the way with his best effort of 1:30.475.
Colin Edwards impressed with fourth for Tech 3, ten places ahead of English team-mate Cal Crutchlow, as the second two works Hondas of Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa completed the leading six. A still struggling Valentino Rossi could manage no more than 12th, five places and half a second down on team-mate Nicky Hayden.
As Damian Cudlin completed the field for Pramac, injured team-mate Loris Capirossi delivered a highly respectable performance to seal the tenth best time.
Phillip Island’s second practice session begins at 3:10pm local time (BST +10)
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  C. Stoner | Repsol Honda | 01:30.475 | 15 |
| 2. | J. Lorenzo | Fiat Yamaha | 01:30.744 | 20 |
| 3. | M. Simoncelli | Gresini | 01:30.951 | 18 |
| 4. | C. Edwards | Tech 3 | 01:31.480 | 20 |
| 5. | A. Dovizioso | Repsol Honda | 01:31.532 | 21 |
| 6. | D. Pedrosa | Repsol Honda | 01:31.571 | 21 |
| 7. | N. Hayden | Ducati | 01:31.662 | 23 |
| 8. | B. Spies | Fiat Yamaha | 01:31.824 | 21 |
| 9. | H. Aoyama | Gresini | 01:31.935 | 23 |
| 10. | L. Capirossi | Pramac | 01:32.052 | 21 |
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| Casey Stoner | |||
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