Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner heads the opening MotoGP free practice timesheet at Barcelona this morning and was a little under half a second faster than Marco Simoncelli before rain put an end to the session five minutes early.
The 2007 world champion set his 1'43.918 time on his seventh lap while Simoncelli's 1'44.404 was much earlier and a quarter of a second faster than the works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo while team-mate Ben Spies's last flying lap hauled him into fourth spot and only 0.003s behind his team leader.
Spies' times was less than a tenth faster than the second Repsol bike of Andrea Dovizioso with the Monster Yamahas of Colin Edwards and rookie Briton Cal Crutchlow, who has never raced here before, in sixth and seventh.
Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden heads team-mate Valentino Rossi in eighth and ninth with the pair just less than a second off the pace. It looks like it could be a long weekend again for the Bologna outfit. Gresini Hondas Hiro Aoyama rounds out the top ten, 1.4s in arrears.
