Stoner dominates Qatar night test

The reigning champion, who won at the track last year, was fastest from early on in the session and was never headed.

In the end, his nearest challenger was Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who steadily improved throughout the evening to set his best time in the final hour of running.

Team LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet was third fastest, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Briton James Toseland on the Tech 3 Yamaha. Alex de Angelis rounded off the top six.

The recovering John Hopkins and Dani Pedrosa completed a full day's running to set the seventh and eighth best times, showing they were well on their way to putting their testing injuries behind them.

The only rider to fall during the day was Kawasaki's Anthony West, who escaped injury in his fall but ended the day at the bottom of the timesheets.

Speaking about the incident, the Australian said: "The bike felt really good and I started pushing a bit hard, which caused me to crash. I lost the front at the last corner and I'm a bit bruised, but no major problems."

Thursday's testing times:

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:55.330
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    1:56.019  + 0.689
 3.  Randy De Puniet   Honda     1:56.062  + 0.732
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     1:56.121  + 0.791
 5.  James Toseland    Yamaha    1:56.251  + 0.921
 6.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     1:56.571  + 1.241
 7.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  1:56.614  + 1.284
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:56.621  + 1.291
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:56.749  + 1.419
10.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:56.762  + 1.432
11.  Toni Elias        Ducati    1:57.007  + 1.677
12.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:57.010  + 1.680
13.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:57.223  + 1.893
14.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:57.522  + 2.192
15.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    1:57.551  + 2.221
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    1:57.593  + 2.263
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    1:57.644  + 2.314
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:57.787  + 2.457