Rossi trounces rivals in first practice

The world champion spent most of the session almost incognito, running around the classic track third fastest, only to deliver a quite stunning 1m34.402s when it seemed for all the world like Casey Stoner would take the top spot.

Stoner nevertheless reminded his rivals that Ducati will be a force in this weekend's event by setting a 1m34.508s lap - a tenth slower than Rossi and just 0.034s faster than Spanish Grand Prix winner Jorge Lorenzo.

The Majorcan looked like he would pick up where he left off in Jerez as he took his FIAT Yamaha to the top of the times for much of the session, until for Stoner and then Rossi to trump him late on.

Lorenzo's 1m34.698s pretty much set the mark until Stoner thumped in his lap - proving that the GP10 is a machine much more suited to the French track than some of its predecessors.

But Rossi's lap, fast as it was, simply came too late for either of his rivals to respond.

Andrea Dovizioso, one of those riders whose seat is the subject of intense paddock speculation currently - was fourth fastest ahead of his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Colin Edwards showed his usual strong Le Mans form with a late lap to go sixth fastest ahead of Nicky Hayden on the second Ducati.

Ben Spies, on his first ever visit to Le Mans, was eighth. Pol Espargaro was an impressive ninth and former French GP winner Marco Melandri tenth.

It was a reasonably uneventful session - Hector Barbera the only rider to obviously take to the gravel on his way to 13th position. Question marks remain over Alvaro Bautista's continued involvement in this weekend's event however.

The Spanish Suzuki rider completed 19 laps despite his broken shoulder, but was slowest of all with a lap of 1m37.525s and had trouble even taking his crash helmet off when he finally pitted, ashen-faced and clearly in pain.

Nobuatsu Aoki remains on standby for the team should Bautista not prove fit enough to continue.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m34.402s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m34.508s  + 0.106s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m34.542s  + 0.140s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m34.625s  + 0.223s
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m34.989s  + 0.587s
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m35.089s  + 0.687s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m35.223s  + 0.821s
 8.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m35.291s  + 0.889s
 9.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m35.450s  + 1.048s
10.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m35.643s  + 1.241s
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m35.685s  + 1.283s
12.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m35.959s  + 1.557s
13.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m36.009s  + 1.607s
14.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m36.086s  + 1.684s
15.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m36.292s  + 1.890s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m36.798s  + 2.396s
17.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m37.525s  + 3.123s