Stoner goes fastest at Jerez

The Australian, whose Ducati team skipped the recent Sepang test, put in his first laps with the new GP8 bike that he will use next season to defend his title.

But his day was not as smooth as he had hoped, as he was the only rider to fall - coming off his bike at the Alex Criville corner.

"This first day with the GP8 was really positive for us. I immediately felt at home on the bike because it's pretty similar to what we rode last season," said Stoner.

"Today we were quite a bit faster than we were when we raced here back in March, which is very important because we have improved at a track that used to be a bit difficult for us. We found a very good set-up which could also be good at other circuits.

"We used 2007 spec tyres today, tomorrow we will start with Bridgestone's new tyres. The only bad moment of the day was the crash, but these things can happen. I'm okay though, so everything is fine."

Behind him, Spain's Dani Pedrosa continued Repsol Honda's 2008 preparations to end the day just more than one tenth of a second adrift of Stoner.

Most of the attention over the day was on Valentino Rossi, though, who returned to action for the first time since the season finale at Valencia. His running was followed closely as he evaluated Bridgestone tyres for the first time.

And he will certainly have been encouraged by his opening experience, as he ended the day third quickest overall - less than three tenths of a second slower than Stoner, and crucially seven tenths up on his Michelin-shod Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo.

Colin Edwards delivered an encouraging performance for the Tech 3 Yamaha squad, ended the day fourth overall, ahead of former champion Nicky Hayden on the Repsol Honda and Alex de Angelis on the Honda Gresini.

World Superbike Champion James Toseland ended the day 11th fastest, 1.5 seconds adrift of Stoner's pace.

Pos Rider                 Team                Time      Laps
 1. Casey Stoner          Ducati Marlboro     1:40.221   35
 2. Dani Pedrosa          Repsol Honda        1:40.355   60
 3. Valentino Rossi       Fiat Yamaha         1:40.514   56
 4. Colin Edwards         Tech3 Yamaha        1:40.790   47
 5. Nicky Hayden          Repsol Honda        1:40.923   63
 6. Alex de Angelis       Honda Gresini       1:41.111   58
 7. Jorge Lorenzo         Fiat Yamaha         1:41.230   90
 8. Shinya Nakano         Honda Gresini       1:41.277   65
 9. Randy de Puniet       Honda LCR           1:41.313   79
10. John Hopkins          Kawasaki Racing     1:41.414   49
11. James Toseland        Tech3 Yamaha        1:41.776   69
12. Marco Melandri        Ducati Marlboro     1:41.889   62
13. Andrea Dovizioso      JiR Scot            1:42.033   60
14. Niccolo Canepa        Ducati Marlboro     1:42.666   67
15. Taddy Okada           Repsol HRC          1:43.051   42
16. Anthony West          Kawasaki Racing     1:43.576   73
17. Shinichi Ito          Bridgestone Team    1:44.530   56
18. Vittoriano Guareschi  Ducati Marlboro     1:44.588   51