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Stoner leads Friday practice in Valencia
06 November 2009 / Results / Photos2007 Champion Casey Stoner led the way for Ducati as first practice commenced in Spain on Friday. With the Australian topping the timesheets, Champion Valentino Rossi suffered a brief off-track excursion before ending the day fourth quickest behind local favourites Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.
With the Ricardo Tormo circuit keeping up recent traditions by hosting the season finale, the track is set to do so for some time yet after confirming this week that it will remain on the MotoGP calendar until at least 2016. With the Spanish sun making for ideal conditions for riders and spectators alike, the hour-long session began at 1:55pm local time (GMT +1).
At the top of the timesheets, Ducati's Stoner set the pace with a lap time of 1:32.813, almost four tenths quicker than the Yamaha of Lorenzo, who rode the most laps with 32 to his name. The second Spaniard in the field, Honda's Dani Pedrosa, ended the day right behind his compatriot as fellow countrymen Tony Elías and Aleix Espargaro ended up 14th and 18th quickest respectively.
World Champion Valentino Rossi was fourth for Yamaha, almost seven tenths down on Stoner's leading time, after recovering from an agricultural moment during the session. Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda satellite bike was in the top five ahead of Alex de Angelis, Colin Edwards, Andrea Dovizioso, Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden, who rounded out the ten.
World Superbike Champion Ben Spies ended the day 15th with Briton James Toseland and Australian Chris Vermeulen, both of whom are competing in their final MotoGP weekends in Spain before reverting to the WSK championship themselves, 13th and 16th in the day's final classification.
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