Pedrosa leads opening practice
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took the fastest time at the very end of the first practice session for Sunday's MotoGP event at Motegi, Japan
Pedrosa completed his final flying lap of the session after the chequered flag fell to take the top spot away from Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner by 0.242 seconds, with a lap time of 1:48.249.
Stoner did a 1:48.491 to top the times just after halfway through the session, and looked safe to finish the session on top until Pedrosa's late flier, despite other riders' last-minute attempts.
Less than two-tenths cover the next seven riders, from Marco Melandri's Honda, 0.430 seconds behind Pedrosa in third, to Carlos Checa's Honda, 0.598 seconds off the pace.
In the middle of this group are Valentino Rossi in fifth, with John Hopkins and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden just behind him. Rossi looked set to finish the session outside the top ten before his final lap bumped him up to fifth place.
Unfortunately, that was where Colin Edwards finished the session, down in 13th place over a second off the pace, having had his teammate Rossi just ahead of him just before the session ended.
One place behind Edwards is Ducati's Loris Capirossi, over a second and a quarter slower than Pedrosa's best.
Pos Rider Make Time 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) 1:48.249 2. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:48.491 + 0.242 3. Marco Melandri Honda (B) 1:48.679 + 0.430 4. Randy de Puniet Kawasaki (B) 1:48.689 + 0.440 5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (M) 1:48.736 + 0.487 6. John Hopkins Suzuki (B) 1:48.766 + 0.517 7. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:48.826 + 0.577 8. Toni Elias Honda (B) 1:48.827 + 0.578 9. Carlos Checa Honda (M) 1:48.847 + 0.598 10. Shinya Nakano Honda (M) 1:48.986 + 0.737 11. Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki (B) 1:49.127 + 0.878 12. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha (D) 1:49.207 + 0.958 13. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:49.368 + 1.119 14. Loris Capirossi Ducati (B) 1:49.527 + 1.278 15. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:49.960 + 1.711 16. Alex Barros Ducati (B) 1:50.037 + 1.788 17. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:50.210 + 1.961 18. Makoto Tamada Yamaha (D) 1:50.237 + 1.988 19. Akira Yanagawa Kawasaki (B) 1:50.606 + 2.357 20. Kurtis Roberts KR (M) 1:51.167 + 2.918 21. Shinichi Ito Ducati (B) 1:52.374 + 4.125
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