The 2010 MotoGP World Championship finally stepped into the spotlight tonight as the first free practice session for the Grand Prix of Qatar took place under the night sky of Losail.
Casey Stoner set the pace lapping some 0.526 seconds ahead of the Fiat Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi respectivly in a positive opening to the weekend.
The Australian set his best effort on his ninth lap of seventeen, having switched bikes midway through the session due to a small technical glitch when the water hose split on his number 1 bike. However, he set a similar pace on his second machine, raising hopes of further improvement when the data is overlapped tomorrow.
"Today felt really good ‰ÛÒ we had a similar rhythm to the test and I didn‰Ûªt feel to be pushing too hard," Stoner ecplained.
"I had a really good feeling from the start and actually when we changed the setting I went faster but didn‰Ûªt feel as good, so we need to work on that. This is obviously a good circuit for me but we‰Ûªre taking things steadily. The target for this weekend is to take away some solid points and make a good start to the season. It is early days and we‰Ûªre not getting carried away. We set some good lap times today but everybody else will improve so we have to work hard tomorrow and make sure we stay on the pace right through until Sunday night."
Lorenzo, last season's runner-up, was on great form for most of the hour despite not being back to full fitness after his recent hand injury. The 22-year-old was looking comfortable and confident on his bike and was able to ride without any additional hand protection inside his glove. After sitting third in the times for most of the session a late improvement saw him better his team-mate's time by just two thousandths of a second, before making a mistake at turn 14 the next time around and going down into the gravel trap. He was luckily unhurt and is confident that he can make further improvements tomorrow.
"I'm quite happy about tonight and about my hand; I tried riding for the first time without the extra hand protection and I was okay," Lorenzo said.
"I felt good on the bike and my thumb didn't really hurt, it was a lot better than at the test. We still have a few things on the bike that we need to work on but we have made a good start. It was a pity to crash, I was pushing hard at the time and I just made a small mistake, touching the white line; these things happen and luckily I didn't hurt myself. Tomorrow we'll continue our work and try to improve more."
Reigning World Champion Rossi meanwhile was a little disappointed with his opening performance and admitted he was expecting to be faster after his strong showing here in testing. The 31-year-old found he was lacking grip on the dusty track and he and his team will be looking to improve their setting tomorrow in order to get the most out of the Bridgestone tyres and close the gap to Stoner
"Honestly I expected to be faster today - the lap time is not bad but it could be better," Rossi lammnted.
"The conditions are much better than during the test, it's warmer and a lot less humid so I'm happy about that, but we don't have enough grip and I was sliding quite a lot so we need to try to find a way to improve this. Stoner is always very fast here and I hope we can close the gap to him by making some small changes to our suspension. If we can stop the bike sliding then we will be a lot faster."
Honda's Andrea Dovizioso was 4th fastest with Nicky Hayden a tenth behind in 5th. Ben Spies was 6th fastest in his first hit out in anger aboard a MotoGP bike.
Spies, who won both World Superbike races in Qatar last year, spent the majority of the session evaluating the harder compound Bridgestone rear tyre in readiness for Sunday night's 22-lap race.
‰ÛÏI didn't want anything crazy to go on with it being the first race. I wanted to be in the top ten for the first session of the year because the last time I rode the bike I fell, so I just wanted to clear my head and get off to a good start," Spies explained.
"We need to get some time on the softer tyre so when qualifying comes we can use it to its full potential. I still think we've got a second at least with fresh hard tyres on the bike, so I'm pretty happy about that," the Texan concluded.
In a change to the tyre regulations for this season, after the end of this first session every rider can now choose their favoured compound for the final two front tyres they receive from their total allocation of eight.
Before the session every rider received six front tyres in three of each compound; medium and extra hard. Now that they have had a chance to get a feel for how each compound is working for them this race weekend, they can select an additional two front tyres of their preferred compound to use for the rest of the weekend
Free Practice
1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'55.500
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'26.000
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'28.000
4 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1'56.698
5 Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 1'56.739
6 Ben Spies Yamaha USA 1'56.818
7 Alvaro Bautista Suzuki ESP 1'56.998
8 Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 1'57.031
9 Mika Kallio Ducati FIN 1'57.059
10 Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 1'57.105
11 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'57.133
12 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'57.167
13 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 1'57.363
14 Marco Simoncelli Honda ITA 1'57.535
15 Aleix Espargaro Ducati ESP 1'57.605
