Casey Stoner shines in FP1 Le Mans MotoGP first practice

Casey Stoner shines in FP1 Le Mans MotoGP first practice.Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) delivered the goods in the first practice session for the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar at the Losail International Circuit.
Honda convert Stoner hit the front just a few minutes in and was never headed, building a 0.610-second advantage over his team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

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

Valentino Rossi's weekend got off to a better start than he might have expected. The Italian crept up to fifth, 0.7s off the pace, by the end of the 45 minutes. 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 team-mate, Ben Spies.