MotoGP – Phillip Island FP1 – The usual Casey Stoner

With the rain decreasing in intensity and a track increasingly closer to being defined as "dry", Casey Stoner, 2007 World Champion, set the best time in the first free practice session reserved for MotoGP on the Phillip Island track. Even at home the Australian starts off with great enthusiasm, stopping the clock at 1'31"132, more than a second (1"339 precisely) ahead of the solid Randy De Puniet, fresh from the first podium of his career in the last event of Motegi. A question of exploiting the track properly, a question of the Ducatista's extraordinary superiority, able to select with his opponents since Friday morning. It will be interesting to follow the race of a Stoner who is no longer under pressure, as well as Valentino Rossi, third in the morning with the Yamaha YZR-M1 800cc dressed in Abarth colors (including the scorpion) due to a choice dictated by Mirafiori's marketing.

Rossi, 2 seconds behind the top, precedes Hopkins, Pedrosa, Capirossi, West, Checa and Elias, with Chris Vermeulen closing the top ten on the Suzuki GSV-R XRG288 “Sheene Replica”. Thirteenth time for Nicky Hayden ahead of Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies further behind: the Englishman, returning to MotoGP after his fleeting experience at Laguna Seca, takes away the satisfaction of immediately preceding his Pramac teammate in this first hour of free practice d'Antin Alex Barros, close to returning to Superbike next year (with Kawasaki).

At 13pm (it will be 50am in Italy) the second free practice session will begin with a track that will be 5% dry.

Alessio Piana