Casey Stoner leads close opening MotoGP practice session in Qatar

With Jorge Lorenzo's Yamaha just behind the Australian's Honda in second and Nicky Hayden putting his Ducati third, all three works teams had a presence in the top three at the end of the close-fought session.

Ben Spies had set the pace for most of the first half of practice on the other works Yamaha, before his 1m57.606s was pipped by just 0.005 seconds by the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha of Cal Crutchlow.

Spies regained the top spot with a 1m57.285s six minutes later, though he was then swiftly deposed by a 1m57.256s from Stoner.

The final few minutes saw a flurry of changes, as first Spies returned to the head of the list with a 1m56.982s, then Lorenzo popped up to first on a 1m56.648s, before Stoner delivered an unbeatable 1m56.474s.

Hayden had briefly been second behind Lorenzo, before Stoner's time pushed them back to second and third, ahead of Spies.

Dani Pedrosa made late gains to take fifth on the other factory Honda, as Crutchlow's impressive evening ended with sixth place.

Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda), Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3) and Hector Barbera (Pramac Ducati) filled seventh to ninth positions, while Valentino Rossi's year kicked off with a quiet 10th for Ducati.

Randy de Puniet was the fastest CRT runner for Aspar, though only after swapping places with Forward Racing's Colin Edwards a few times. Moto2 graduate Michele Pirro was right behin them despite his lack of pre-season mileage on Gresini's CRT entry.

Under Qatar's unique four-day schedule, MotoGP's second and third practice sessions both take place on Friday night, before qualifying on Saturday.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                 1m56.474s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m56.648s  + 0.174s
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m56.924s  + 0.450s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                1m56.982s  + 0.508s
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m57.130s  + 0.656s
 6.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m57.395s  + 0.921s
 7.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m57.512s  + 1.038s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha         1m57.547s  + 1.073s
 9.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati         1m57.912s  + 1.438s
10.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                1m57.914s  + 1.440s
11.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati        1m57.939s  + 1.465s
12.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m58.934s  + 2.460s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m59.985s  + 3.511s
14.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW     2m00.044s  + 3.570s
15.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m00.322s  + 3.848s
16.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         2m00.720s  + 4.246s
17.  Ivan Silva        Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m01.138s  + 4.664s
18.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia  2m01.261s  + 4.787s
19.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m01.276s  + 4.802s
20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia          2m01.352s  + 4.878s
21.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia     2m03.421s  + 6.947s