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Stoner fastest in Monday warm-up

Casey Stoner set the fastest time of today's warm-up session ahead of the MotoGP season opener this evening in Qatar

The Australian claimed a dominant pole position on Saturday before reigning world champion Valentino Rossi reduced his advantage to less than a tenth of a second in the pre-race warm-up on Sunday.

The race was washed-out yesterday evening due to a torrential downpour and rescheduled for tonight.

Stoner took advantage of the extra warm-up session to lower his best time to a 1m56.025s, with Rossi only just able to get within half a second of the Ducati rider's pace in second place.

Andrea Dovizioso continued to be the weekend's fastest Honda in third, with Jorge Lorenzo and Loris Capirossi the only other riders within a second of Stoner's benchmark in fourth and fifth places.

Colin Edwards was best of the rest in sixth, with Dani Pedrosa seventh - making the most of the extra 24 hours to recover from his wrist and knee injuries sustained during pre-season testing.

As in yesterday's warm-up session, Nicky Hayden was off the pace following a heavy landing on his back in a qualifying accident on Saturday. The American was 15th fastest in today's session, 2.5 seconds slower than team-mate Stoner.

Pos Rider                Bike         Time          Gap
 1. Casey Stoner         Ducati       1m56.025s
 2. Valentino Rossi      Yamaha       1m56.498s  +0.473
 3. Andrea Dovizioso     Honda        1m56.698s  +0.673
 4. Jorge Lorenzo        Yamaha       1m56.744s  +0.719
 5. Loris Capirossi      Suzuki       1m56.827s  +0.802
 6. Colin Edwards        Yamaha       1m57.485s  +1.460
 7. Dani Pedrosa         Honda        1m57.735s  +1.710
 8. Chris Vermeulen      Suzuki       1m57.741s  +1.716
 9. Randy de Puniet      Honda        1m57.834s  +1.809
10. Toni Elias           Honda        1m57.985s  +1.960
11. Mika Kallio          Ducati       1m58.007s  +1.982
12. Marco Melandri       Kawasaki     1m58.119s  +2.094
13. Alex de Angelis      Honda        1m58.252s  +2.227
14. Sete Gibernau        Ducati       1m58.278s  +2.253
15. Nicky Hayden         Ducati       1m58.559s  +2.534
16. Yuki Takahashi       Honda        1m58.597s  +2.572
17. James Toseland       Yamaha       1m58.905s  +2.880
18. Niccolo Canepa       Ducati       1m59.705s  +3.680

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