The Australian’s Ducati completed the circuit in 1min57s053, surpassing the current champion, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, by almost four tenths of a second.

The Japanese maker had three motorcycles in the top 4 with the American Colin Edwards of Tech 3 in third, followed by the partner de Rossi, the Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo.

Alex de Angelis  was the fifth with the Gresini Honda, with Italian Loris Capirossi of Suzuki, completing the six fastest.

Among the rookie riders, Finnish Mika Kallio ended in seventh on his Pramac Ducati.

Team Hayat, which absorbed former factory team Kawasaki, finished ninth with Italian Marco Melandri.

Two riders did not do especially well: Spain’s Sete Gibernau was the 16’s with Ducati Francisco Hernando, while Daniel Pedrosa, recovering from wrist surgery closed the list of the 18 competitors, 4s382 slower than Stoner.

Despite the controversy Ezpeleta confirmed that the rule will go into effect next year.  Ezpeleta explains:

it was not a unanimous decision however there is no unanimous court against the decision either.

According to Ezpeleta, is necessary to give independent teams more possibilities in order to make them more competitive.