Stoner quickest in opening practice

Casey Stoner topped the first practice session for the French MotoGP event, the Australian leading a trio of works Honda riders

Stoner posted a time of 1m34.133s to break the Le Mans circuit record - held by Valentino Rossi since the 2008 season - by finishing nearly three tenths of a second ahead of team-mate and Spanish Grand Prix winner Dani Pedrosa.

Andrea Dovizioso was third quickest in a session dominated by the works Hondas, the Italian over half a second behind Stoner.

Another Honda, that of Marcos Simoncelli, was fourth quickest, with world champion Jorge Lorenzo completing the top five for Yamaha. The Spanish rider, however, was over a second slower than Stoner.

Rossi had a slow start to the weekend, the Italian finishing over 1.2 seconds off the fastest time in the quickest of the Ducatis.

Team-mate Nicky Hayden finished down in eighth, with the satellite Ducati of Randy de Puniet splitting the works riders.

The session started under cold conditions, with only 14 degrees Celsius despite a sunny morning.

Pos  Rider              Team                       Time               Laps
 1.  Casey Stoner       Repsol Honda Team          1m34.133s            20
 2.  Dani Pedrosa       Repsol Honda Team          1m34.431s  + 0.298   22
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso   Repsol Honda Team          1m34.808s  + 0.675   22
 4.  Marco Simoncelli   San Carlo Honda Gresini    1m35.029s  + 0.896   21
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha Factory Racing      1m35.165s  + 1.032   24
 6.  Valentino Rossi    Ducati Team                1m35.414s  + 1.281   22
 7.  Randy De Puniet    Pramac Racing Team         1m35.687s  + 1.554   23
 8.  Nicky Hayden       Ducati Team                1m35.721s  + 1.588   20
 9.  Cal Crutchlow      Monster Yamaha Tech 3      1m35.731s  + 1.598   22
10.  Ben Spies          Yamaha Factory Racing      1m35.743s  + 1.610   23
11.  Colin Edwards      Monster Yamaha Tech 3      1m35.871s  + 1.738   20
12.  Loris Capirossi    Pramac Racing Team         1m36.410s  + 2.277   19
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama     San Carlo Honda Gresini    1m36.448s  + 2.315   21
14.  Alvaro Bautista    Rizla Suzuki MotoGP        1m36.510s  + 2.377   21
15.  Toni Elias         LCR Honda MotoGP           1m36.997s  + 2.864   21
16.  Hector Barbera     Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP   1m37.036s  + 2.903   18
17.  Karel Abraham      Cardion AB Motoracing      1m37.154s  + 3.021   19