Stoner tops first day of testing at Brno

And the Australian believes his Ducati Marlboro team have made even more progress on their current dominant form.

Stoner began evaluation of electronics, new Bridgestone tyres and a new fairing that he hopes will deliver more speed for the final stages of this year's title battle.

Although wet weather meant the test was cut short, Stoner was pleased with the steps forward made over the course of the day.

"Today was reasonably busy - we didn't do a lot of laps but we did some very good and very important test with some new equipment," said Stoner.

"We had a new fairing which went very well. We had good results and this is a positive thing for the rest of the season. We had also a lot of tyres to test and there were a couple of rears we were very happy with.

"We tested the new fairing in the afternoon and we didn't have new tyres so we used old ones: we were doing consistently 1:58.7, 1:58.9 already with 17 laps on the tyres so it was working quite well: we were happy with it and with everything we tested today.

"We are not sure exactly when we will use the new fairing in a race because I think we have to find a little bit more information with it, but this is the right direction. I did 1:56.901 with a qualifying tyre, which is not so bad, so I'm pretty happy with the job I'm doing with my team."

Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins proved that his second placed finish in the Czech Grand Prix was no fluke as he set the second fastest time of the test, with teammate Chris Vermeulen third quickest.

World champion Nicky Hayden was fourth quickest for Repsol Honda, just ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa as Michelin began evaluation of tyres that it hopes will lift the performance of its riders.

Fiat Yamaha's Colin Edwards, who was sixth fastest, was not too optimistic that a breakthrough had been found though.

"Michelin brought a lot of new stuff for us to try here today and I think, in total, I tried about four fronts and maybe five rears before the rain came," said the American. "Unfortunately it doesn't seem like we've found a miracle yet.

"We're in a difficult situation but I am determined to give 110% to help Michelin get back to where they should be. I tried a new shock for Ohlins as well and some starting maps and electronics and everything else seems to be feeling pretty good.

"We've got another day tomorrow so let's hope it stays dry so we can get through the remainder of our testing programme."

Teammate Valentino Rossi also tried a new engine on his Fiat Yamaha but the improved power did not deliver a much-needed step forward on the timesheets as he ended the day 10th overall - 2.3 seconds off Stoner's best effort on qualifying rubber.

"We tried a new engine today and I completed about 25 laps with it," said the Italian. "Initially we haven't found that it's a lot faster, but anyway this is only the very first step so we need some more time to understand it better and to see how it can help us.

"Tomorrow we will continue to work with it again, for part of the day at least. We also did some work with tyres, but so far we haven't found anything special.

"We tried some new fronts but then, when we started to work with some new rear tyres it started to rain and so we weren't able to finish our work.

"Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to use the whole day, because we still have a lot of work to get through and this is a very important test for us."

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:56.901
 2.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:57.660 + 0.759
 3.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:58.420 + 1.519
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:58.425 + 1.524
 5.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  1:58.550 + 1.649
 6.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:58.767 + 1.866
 7.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:58.840 + 1.939
 8.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:59.070 + 2.169
 9.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:59.100 + 2.199
10.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:59.200 + 2.299
11.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:59.407 + 2.506
12.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:59.640 + 2.739
13.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:59.760 + 2.859
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:59.820 + 2.919
15.  Ivan Silva        Ducati    (B)  1:59.910 + 3.009
16.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  2:00.060 + 3.159
17.  Taddy Okada       Honda     (M)  2:00.340 + 3.439
18.  Nobu Aoki         Suzuki    (B)  2:00.730 + 3.829