In the first free practice at the Twin Ring circuit at sunny Motegi, it was business as usual for Casey Stoner who started this Japanese weekend with a best lap 1.47.289, and the only rider to break the 1.48 barrier consistently, confirming an already devasting race pace.

Stoner was followed by Repsol Honda team mate Andrea Dovizioso who was just a little less than three tenths of a second adrift, while Ducati’s Nicky Hayden put in a very welcome and suprising third with the Ducati GP11.1 on a track that he has always had problems with.

Hayden stopped a Repsol Honda 1-2-3, because right behind the Ducati rider was Dani Pedrosa followed by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who’ll have to step up his game if he wants to try to stop Casey Stoner.

Lorenzo was tailed by Marco Simoncellli, who just extended his contract with Gresini for another year, but the bushy haired Italian’s session was marred near the end when lowsided out at the V-Corner.

Yamaha’s satellite rider Colin Edwards entered the top ten with his 7th spot ahead of Yamaha factory rider Ben Spies who was the last rider to be within a second from Stoner.

Hector Barbera was 9th followed by Valentino Rossi who closed out the top ten with his last flying lap to save him some embarrasment. The Ducati rider was on his GP11.2 with the partial aluminum frame that he debuted at Aragon and was more than 1.3s adrift.

At the back the chart were Honda wildcards for this round, current all Japan champion and this year’s 8 Hours of Suzuka winner Kousuke Akiyoshi on the LCR Honda in 17th , followed Shinichi Ito with the factory Repsol Honda with HRC’s official colours, while Damian Cudlin (7th last week at the 24 Hours of LeMans) who is substituting for injured Loris Capirossi this weekend in the Pramac Ducati squad, was last and 5.929s off pace.

MotoGP Motegi FP1 results:

01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 1’47.289
02- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.277
03- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.1 – + 0.443
04- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.547
05- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.623
06- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 0.653
07- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.880
08- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.908
09- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.117
10- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.1 – + 1.378
11- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.487
12- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.591
13- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.603
14- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.096
15- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 2.126
16- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 2.524
17- Kousuke Akiyoshi – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 3.399
18- Shinichi Itoh – Honda Racing Team – Honda RC212V – + 4.172
19- Damian Cudlin – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 5.929

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