Pedrosa quickest in Mugello practice

The straightline speed advantage of Stoner's GP7 Ducati has made him favourite for victory at the Italian Grand Prix, but the Australian certainly appears to have a fight on his hands after ending the session in fourth place.

It was Pedrosa who set the best lap, moving to the top of the timesheets halfway through the session with a lap of 1:50.743.

Stoner attempted to better that effort in the final 10 minutes, but just missed out before seeing Valentino Rossi grab the second fastest time with just four minutes of the hour-long session remaining.

He then dropped another spot when a late effort from John Hopkins at the chequered flag secured third place for the Rizla Suzuki rider.

But despite not setting the best time, the straightline speed performance of the Ducatis will again provide Stoner with good reason for optimism.

The Australian topped the speed trap with 323.15 km/h, ahead of Ducati Marlboro teammate Loris Capirossi (322.0 km/h), and the Pramac D'Antin duo of Alex Barros (320.95km/h) and Alex Hofmann (318.86 km/h).

Pedrosa, whose small size has often helped him with straightline speed, was the fastest non-Ducati on 315.51 km/h. Rossi's best was 313.31 km/h.

Carlos Checa continued his recent run of good form with the fifth quickest time, ahead of Toni Elias and Barros. World champion Nicky Hayden was eighth fastest, with Capirossi on his revised Ducati ninth overall.

French GP winner Chris Vermeulen was 13th fastest, while MotoGP new boy Kurtis Roberts was at the bottom of the timesheets in his first session - less than two seconds adrift of teammate Kenny Roberts Jr.

Pos  Driver             Make       Time   
 1.  Daniel Pedrosa     Honda      1:50.743
 2.  Valentino Rossi    Yamaha     1:50.901  + 0.158
 3.  John Hopkins       Suzuki     1:51.022  + 0.279
 4.  Casey Stoner       Ducati     1:51.356  + 0.613
 5.  Carlos Checa       Honda      1:51.414  + 0.671
 6.  Toni Elías         Honda      1:51.553  + 0.810
 7.  Alex Barros        Ducati     1:51.621  + 0.878
 8.  Nicky Hayden       Honda      1:51.720  + 0.977
 9.  Loris Capirossi    Ducati     1:51.803  + 1.060
10.  Makoto Tamada      Yamaha     1:51.823  + 1.080
11.  Alex Hofmann       Ducati     1:51.982  + 1.239
12.  Marco Melandri     Honda      1:52.057  + 1.314
13.  Chris Vermeulen    Suzuki     1:52.125  + 1.382
14.  Shinya Nakano      Honda      1:52.361  + 1.618
15.  Randy de Puniet    Kawasaki   1:52.396  + 1.653
16.  Colin Edwards      Yamaha     1:52.630  + 1.887
17.  Sylvain Guintoli   Yamaha     1:52.726  + 1.983
18.  Olivier Jacque     Kawasaki   1:53.411  + 2.668
19.  K.Roberts Jr.      KR         1:53.541  + 2.798
20.  Kurtis Roberts     KR         1:55.286  + 4.543