Casey Stoner finished in front of the first free practice of the MotoGP season in 2009 this Friday evening  in Qatar.

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.