Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner has set the fastest time in this morning's opening MotoGP free practice session in wet conditions at Valencia which allowed nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi to bag second place until the dying second when he was shuffled back by Dani Pedrosa.
The heavens opened early on and Stoner mastered the conditions to go a quarter of second faster than team-mate Pedrosa on a 1'45.513 while Marlboro Ducati's Rossi was only another tenth further back with a 1'45.828.
Bologna team-mate Nicky Hayden, who had led the session more than once, was eventually shuffled back to fourth while Loris Capirossi's experience meant he could make the best of tricky conditions and put his #58 Pramac Ducati in fifth, one place ahead of the injured Ben Spies who is three quarters of a second in arrears.
A late lap by Randy De Puniet on the second Pramac bike saw him hop up to fourth briefly before sliding back to seventh. He was on place ahead of Toni Elias who topped the timesheet with 10 minutes to go. Andrea Dovizioso is ninth and Britain's Cal Crutchlow completes the top ten but is only a second off the pace.
MotoGP debut rider Josh Hayes, who is replacing Colin Edwards at Monster Yamaha, is in 15th place on a 1'48.037 and one place ahead of the Factory Yamaha of Kats Nakasuga who is four tenths slower than the two-time AMA Superbike Champion.
