Stoner tops practice then crashes

The Ducati rider's fourth lap of the day - a 1m39.731s - stood as the fastest of the session, and put him 0.7 seconds clear of the pack until the closing stages.

Stoner then lost the front end of his Ducati at the Angel Nieto corner on one of his final runs, but was unhurt and retained his position at the head of the order, although Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo got to within a tenth of a second.

Nicky Hayden put the second Ducati third as he continued his 2010 resurgence, while Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) did not appear to be in too much discomfort from his shoulder injury as he took fifth behind top Honda runner Dani Pedrosa.

Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) and Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) were sixth and seventh, ahead of impressive rookie Hector Barbera - who went eighth fastest in his and the Aspar team's first MotoGP session on home ground. He had fallen early in the session, but swiftly recovered and spent much of the hour in the top six. Fellow Spanish newcomer Alvaro Bautista took ninth for Suzuki.

It was an encouraging session for Marco Melandri too. After a terrible start to the season in Qatar, the Gresini Honda rider was back in the top ten at Jerez.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m39.731s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m39.875s  + 0.144s
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m40.148s  + 0.417s
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m40.200s  + 0.469s
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m40.359s  + 0.628s
 6.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m40.716s  + 0.985s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m40.913s  + 1.182s
 8.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m41.034s  + 1.303s
 9.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m41.093s  + 1.362s
10.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m41.190s  + 1.459s
11.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m41.200s  + 1.469s
12.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m41.277s  + 1.546s
13.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m41.293s  + 1.562s
14.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m41.297s  + 1.566s
15.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m41.533s  + 1.802s
16.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m41.742s  + 2.011s
17.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m41.837s  + 2.106s