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2009-04-10 Stoner sets pace in 2009 opener
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 Casey Stoner opened 2009. MotoGP season with dominance in first free practice, as he easily set the pace through the session under floodlights of Qatar. Despite small excursion off the track, Stoner improved his result every time he got out on track, while other riders were not so comfortable in their attempts to improve. Valentino Rossi was the only rider who was able to stay in touch with Stoner, as he set time 0.329 seconds slower than Stoner's. Rossi demonstrated consistent pace in mid 1.57's, similar to one shown by Stoner. Colin Edwards continued great form from pre-season, ending day in 3rd place, and being last rider within one second from Stoner.
Jorge Lorenzo improved in last part of the session and set 4th time, while Alex De Angelis set 5th time while demonstrating decent pace. Loris Capirossi was 6th on his Suzuki, while Mika Kalio took the glory of second best Ducati, around 1.5 seconds behind Stoner. Andrea Dovizioso was 8th, with Marco Melandri returning to top 10 on Hayate Kawasaki. Randy de Puniet completed top 10 fastest riders in Qatar.
Casey Stoner - 1st - 1:57.053:
We've made a good start today and I'm happy because the bike feeling was really good straight away. The settings we brought from Jerez seem to be working well here too. We still need to change a couple of things to get more grip from the rear. A lot of that is due to the track conditions being really dusty but we just need to take our time and try to get it set up better for tomorrow. Hopefully the track will clean up too.
Free practice 1 times:
1 Casey Stoner 1:57.053
2 Valentino Rossi 1:57.439
3 Colin Edwards 1:57.835
4 Jorge Lorenzo 1:58.272
5 Alex De Angelis 1:58.452
6 Loris Capirossi 1:58.468
7 Mika Kallio 1:58.499
8 Andrea Dovizioso 1:58.506
9 Marco Melandri 1:58.757
10 Randy De Puniet 1:58.771
11 James Toseland 1:58.850
12 Toni Elias 1:59.094
13 Nicky Hayden 1:59.158
14 Chris Vermeulen 1:59.348
15 Yuki Takahashi 1:59.437
16 Sete Gibernau 2:00.595
17 Niccolo Canepa 2:00.597
18 Dani Pedrosa 2:01.435
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