Stoner tops opening Valencia practice

Stoner, who dominated last year's weekend at Valencia before falling down before the start of the race, moved to the top of the times with some six minutes of the session remaining.

His time of 1m32.897s was just four tenths of a second off the track record set by himself during the 2008 race.

The Ducati rider outpaced world champion Jorge Lorenzo, the local hero having to set for second position after finishing over half a second off the flying Stoner.

Honda's Andrea Dovizioso secured the third quickest time with a last-gasp effort, ahead of compatriot Marco Simoncelli on the satellite Honda from the Gresini team.

Valentino Rossi, in what is his final GP weekend with Yamaha, completed the top five from Nicky Hayden and Hector Barbera.

Randy de Puniet finished down in eighth position after topping the times for a significant part of the session in his last race with the LCR team.

The Frenchman, competing in his 200th race in the championship, wound up in front of American Ben Spies, who was the protagonist of the only significant incident of the session when he fell down at the end of the 45 minutes.

The Texan walked away from the accident unhurt.

Pos  Rider             Bike               Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m32.897s            15
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m33.455s  + 0.558   22
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m33.500s  + 0.603   18
 4.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m33.631s  + 0.734   21
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m33.714s  + 0.817   23
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m33.757s  + 0.860   20
 7.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m33.857s  + 0.960   21
 8.  Randy De Puniet   LCR Honda          1m33.899s  + 1.002   24
 9.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m33.929s  + 1.032   24
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m34.029s  + 1.132   21
11.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m34.053s  + 1.156   19
12.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m34.123s  + 1.226   21
13.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m34.160s  + 1.263   23
14.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m34.506s  + 1.609   20
15.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m34.864s  + 1.967   18
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m34.904s  + 2.007   22
17.  Carlos Checa      Pramac Ducati      1m35.172s  + 2.275   20