Stoner breaks Rossi’s pre-season dominance in Qatar

The third and final pre-season Test ended in Qatar on Friday with Ducati Marlboro rider Casey Stoner the quickest across the two evenings. A best lap of 1’55.353 set under the Losail floodlights came on the second night, before he had a fall on his Desmosedici GP10 which did not result in any injury. The Australian’s time was less than a tenth of a second off his 2009 pole position time at the circuit.

Valentino Rossi, who had topped the timesheet in the two previous Tests at Sepang and was fastest in the opening session in Qatar, was less than five-hundredths of a second behind Stoner as he worked on electronics on his Fiat Yamaha M1. The Italian’s best time placed him second overall.

Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was a further 0.4s down the timings as he achieved a better chassis setting on his factory RC212V prototype. The Italian’s lap of 1’55.879 was set in the second session, with Ben Spies’ (Monster Yamaha Tech3) fine effort of 1’55.954 from the previous night the fourth and final under the 1’56” mark. Spies was the highest placing rookie of the Test, as he confirmed his setting on the M1 for the opening race at the circuit. The Texan experienced a fall on each of the two evenings, neither of which resulted in any ill effects as he rode for the first time under the circuit’s floodlights.

Nicky Hayden rounded out the top five for the Test with a time of 1’56.115. The American suffered a crash late in session two at the same point – Turn 2 – as Stoner and was unharmed, and he was followed by Loris Capirossi of the Rizla Suzuki team. The Italian tried new chassis and swingarm components on his GSV-R, which produced results in the second session to place him as the final rider within a second of Stoner thanks to a time of 1’56.195.

Jorge Lorenzo arrived in Qatar carrying the hand injury that prevented him from participating at the last Test in Malaysia, but the Spanish Fiat Yamaha rider pushed through the pain barrier. His time of 1’56.504 put him in seventh position overall and was equal with that of Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda).

Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Colin Edwards (1’56.540) – who was also a victim of a fall in the second session, again at Turn 2 – and Mika Kallio of Pramac Racing (1’56.767) rounded off the top ten times.

Notably outside the top ten was Dani Pedrosa, as the Repsol Honda rider ended the Test 13th fastest overall at just over 1.5s off the top time. He was followed in the times by Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) who had a very late crash in session two – as did his team-mate, rookie Marco Simoncelli.

You can see the combined times for both nights of the Test by clicking here.

The riders will return to the circuit for the start of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship on April 11th for the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. You can follow all the action on motogp.com!