Stoner on top again in Qatar Monday warm-up

The second MotoGP warm-up of the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar saw the same man at the top of the timesheets as in Sunday’s original session, as Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner stayed on the pace at the Losail International Circuit.

Heavy rain on Sunday evening at the floodlit Arabian desert circuit made it impossible for the MotoGP race to take place and it was postponed until 9pm local time on Monday evening due to safety concerns.

Workers at the track put in several intense hours of cleaning to remove sand and dust from the racing surface after Sunday’s rain and Stoner’s best time of 1’56.025 appeared to indicate that they had done a good job in preparing the asphalt for Monday’s delayed first MotoGP race of the year.

As he has been since Friday Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was on his Ducati rival’s shoulder, registering a second best lap time in the session of 1’56.498.

Also in the top five were Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) who have all been towards the top of the timesheets over the course of the round one weekend, each of them lapping within a second of Stoner.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) lapped around 1.5s behind Stoner, whilst the injured Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) gave a good showing in seventh place.

Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) were also in the top ten.