Australia's Casey Stoner was quickest in Qatar on Thursday evening on debut with Repsol Honda.

Casey Stoner carried his hot form from pre-season into the opening practice session of the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar at the Losail International Circuit on Thursday, setting by far the best lap of the first practice session at round onr of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship.

The Australian’s best effort of 1:55 752 made him the only rider under 1:56 in the 45-minute session under the floodlights, and he was over 0.610s quicker than nearest rival, teammate Dani Pedrosa as the Repsol Honda duo repeated their one-two from the final test just days earlier.

The surprise of the session was Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP), setting the third quickest lap, and of course all eyes were on the debut of Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) riding on his Desmosedici GP11 for the first time in a competitive session.

After some difficulties in pre-season testing, he finished fifth, just being edged out by fellow Italian, Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team).

Current world champion, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) was 0.834 seconds off the fastest time set by Stoner and was one place behind fellow Yamaha Factory Racing teammate, Ben Spies.

The gap between second and eighth was just 0.230 seconds, showing how close the competition is throughout the field in MotoGP.

Third Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was eighth quickest and next, the Frenchman Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) in ninth position with the final place in the top ten going to American Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).

In Moto2 Yuki Takahashi grabbed the quickest time of the second practice session in the dying moments, beating Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) by just 0.053 of a second as the intermediate class and the 125s ran two practices on Thursday, as opposed to the single one for MotoGP.

Redding looked set to claim top spot in the session, however a fall on his last lap cost him the chance of attempting to improve his time. Takahashi’s lap of 2:01.695 was faster than the best time of FP1 set by Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing).

Bradl was still consistently quick though, recording the third fastest time of FP2. Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) and Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) were fourth and fifth respectively.

Second quickest man from FP1 was newcomer Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol), who this time was sixth place.

Michele Pirro (Gresini Racing Moto2) set the seventh fastest lap of the session, showing a good start to his 2011 campaign.

He was ahead of more experienced riders, Aleix Espargaró (Pons Racing), Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) and Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing) who were eighth, ninth and 10th.

Pol Espargaró slid off into the gravel early on and had to return to the pits without his bike, missing a large portion of the session. His brother Aleix also had a minor off late on.

Aussie Anthony West was a trying 34th for MZ Racing.

In the 125 class Nico Terol was a clear second ahead of Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) in the second session. The Bankia Aspar rider posted a 2:07.418, with his German competitor second ahead of second Aspar rider Héctor Faubel.

Luis Salom (RW Racing GP), Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport), Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo Motorsport), Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo Motorsport), Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport), Alberto Moncayo (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) and Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton) completed the top ten.

2011 MotoGP World Championship
Round One – Losail Circuit, Qatar
Thursday Practice

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