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Pedrosa leads first night of Qatar test

Dani Pedrosa was fastest as the Honda domination continued on day one of the final MotoGP winter test in Qatar

The floodlit evening session saw an all-Honda top three, with works riders Pedrosa and Casey Stoner leading Gresini's Hiroshi Aoyama - in one of the former 250cc champion's strongest MotoGP performances yet.

Pedrosa set his 1m56.271s with just over two hours to go, beating Stoner's previous benchmark by 0.143 seconds. Aoyama was within 0.03s of Stoner's time.

Three Yamahas completed the top six, with works riders Ben Spies and early pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo ahead of Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 bike. Andrea Dovizioso was seventh on the final factory Honda.

It was another difficult night for Ducati. Valentino Rossi had an early fall at Turn 9, and though he was unhurt and able to continue, he could only manage eighth, just ahead of team-mate Nicky Hayden.

Randy de Puniet recovered from two minor accidents to take 10th place on the Pramac Ducati, while Sepang test star Marco Simoncelli (Gresini) was back in 11th this time - though he was under a second off the pace in the closely-matched field.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike      Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda          1m56.271s            41
 2.  Casey Stoner      Honda          1m56.414s  + 0.143s  32
 3.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda  1m56.444s  + 0.173s  59
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha         1m56.563s  + 0.292s  38
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha         1m56.682s  + 0.411s  60
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha  1m56.742s  + 0.471s  42
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda          1m56.780s  + 0.509s  56
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati         1m57.038s  + 0.767s  57
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati         1m57.137s  + 0.866s  57
10.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati  1m57.143s  + 0.872s  39
11.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda  1m57.226s  + 0.955s  57
12.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki         1m57.302s  + 1.031s  61
13.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati   1m57.325s  + 1.054s  69
14.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati  1m57.437s  + 1.166s  56
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati 1m57.499s  + 1.228s  49
16.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha  1m57.737s  + 1.466s  51
17.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda      1m58.250s  + 1.979s  65

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