Still-injured reigning MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner marmalised the field during Phillip Island's opening free practice session, lapping a second faster than Jorge Lorenzo.
The Repsol Honda man was by far the most consistently quickest man on track, opening his account with a 1'31.046 on lap four which was 1.4s quicker than team-mate Dani Pedrosa but then, as Pedrosa and Lorenzo closed in, Stoner went back out and banged in a 1'30.374 on his 11th lap of 16. He also did four laps in the 1'30s bracket.
Lorenzo jumped into second place with a 1'31.310 and then reduced the gap to nine-tenths on a 1'31.279 with Pedrosa, who had a huge moment early on when Cal Crutchlow's knee hit a kerbside puddle and splashed the little Spaniard, another quarter of a second further back.
Andrea Dovizioso got into fourth place with his 1'31.968 - some 1.6s slower than Stoner - while Alvaro Bautista laid down his marker for fifth place in the championship with a 1'32.039 and Crutchlow, who is suffering from bronchitis, in sixth place.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden nicked seventh place from Stefan Bradl late on while Valentino Rossi is struggling down in ninth place and is some 2.3s in arrears but only a 1.3s slower than Lorenzo.
Randy De Puniet was the first of the CRT runners in tenth place on a 1'33.266 and he is a country mile ahead of team-mate Aleix Espargaro who could only muster a 1'33.727 with Roby Rolfo third. Britain's James Ellison was 17th and Colin Edwards 18th.
Karel Abraham set a monstrous top speed down the Gardner Straight, topping out a 339.4km/h which is 211mph in real money.
