MotoGP Losail, Warm Up: Stoner precedes Pedrosa and Lorenzo

The riders of the MotoGP class have just finished the Warm Up of the Qatar Grand Prix (opening race of the 2012 world championship), the last round available to make changes to the bikes before the race which will start at 21pm Italian time.

The fastest on the track was the reigning champion Casey Stoner who stopped the clock at a time of 1:55.999. The Australian from Honda preceded his team-mate Dani Pedrosa, finally close to the Australian given that the gap to him is only 76 thousandths.

Third time for the pole man Jorge Lorenzo who lapped in 1:56.326 and who put two other Yamahas behind him, those of the Tech 3 satellite team of our Andrea Dovizioso and the British Cal Crutchlow, who will start from the front row with the third time.

The first two Ducatis are those of Nicky Hayden and Hector Barberà, in sixth and seventh position respectively, 776 and 784 thousandths behind Stoner. The Honda of Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl and Valentino Rossi follows, making up ground in terms of performance compared to qualifying. His gap from Stoner is in fact 1.144, while yesterday the gap from pole was more than two seconds. Ben Spies closes the Top Ten, riding the second official Yamaha M1. The American driver tried a new solution on the front which could help him in the race. Followed by Abraham and Bautista, who fell without physical consequences.

The first CRT driver is Colin Edwards, riding the Suter BMW of Team NGM Mobile Forward Racing. The Texan precedes the ART Aprilia of Randy De Puniet's Team Power Electronics Aspar and the Honda FTR of our Michele Pirro.