Casey Stoner remained on top in the first Friday practice session for the MotoGP season opener in Qatar.
Once again, the Honda rider was the first man to start setting quick times at the start of the session and was never headed. His 1m55.457sec benchmark was set on just his third lap of the day, and the closest anyone got was his teammate Dani Pedrosa's 1m55.854sec.
Honda held a 1-2-3 formation for a while, but Andrea Dovizioso was eventually edged back to fourth by Yamaha's Ben Spies.
MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo had a slight delay at the start of the session when his Yamaha developed a problem trying to leave the garage. It was quickly resolved and Lorenzo was fifth by the end of the 45 minutes.
Satellite Yamaha team Tech 3 had a promising session, with Colin Edwards taking sixth and teammate Cal Crutchlow getting through the pain from his seriously injured finger to show his best MotoGP form yet in eighth. They were split by Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli. The factory Ducatis of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden completed the top 10.
Under this weekend's unique format, the practice session that would normally take place on Saturday morning will run later tonight, with MotoGP then going straight into qualifying on Saturday.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap
1. Casey Stoner Honda 1m55.457s
2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m55.854s + 0.397s
3. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m56.116s + 0.659s
4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m56.172s + 0.715s
5. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m56.220s + 0.763s
6. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.259s + 0.802s
7. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda 1m56.378s + 0.921s
8. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.518s + 1.061s
9. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m56.532s + 1.075s
10. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m56.626s + 1.169s
11. Randy de Puniet Pramac Ducati 1m56.668s + 1.211s
12. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 1m56.735s + 1.278s
13. Hiroshi Aoyama Gresini Honda 1m56.790s + 1.333s
14. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 1m56.833s + 1.376s
15. Loris Capirossi Pramac Ducati 1m57.304s + 1.847s
16. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m57.683s + 2.226s
17. Toni Elias LCR Honda 1m58.801s + 3.344s