Casey Stoner, who had dominated the Valencia MotoGP weekend only to crash out on the warm-up lap of Sunday's race, underlined what might have been by leading the first day of post-season testing on Monday.

The Ducati star, whose embarrassing exit was officially blamed on cold tyres caused by the team's “grid strategy”, dipped 0.118sec under Sunday's fastest race lap.

That had been set by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, on his way to a victory that cost Stoner third place in the final world championship standings. Stoner was using an audibly different engine with a new firing configuration.

“We tried a new engine configuration designed at improving the rideability of the bike and for the moment it is going really well,” said Stoner. “The feedback is more smooth and we improved traction with the same set-up we used over the weekend, so that is positive.

“We also tried some different forks and in general I am satisfied. We didn't do many laps today [32] - just tried to make sure we were working in the right direction. I think we are and I can't wait to get back on track tomorrow, when hopefully it won't be as windy."

Jorge Lorenzo and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi had a new evolution of the 2010 prototype YZR-M1 to try alongside a 2009 bike. Both gave a positive assessment of the new machine.

Lorenzo, third in Sunday's race, came closest to Stoner - lapping just 0.025sec from the Australian and 0.396sec under his best race lap. Reigning seven time MotoGP champion Rossi set a best lap time 0.166sec from Stoner and a few thousandths under his best race lap.

Pedrosa - who beat Rossi to victory on Sunday - was fourth fastest as he got his first taste of the 2010 RC212V, which features a brand new chassis, swing arm and the latest evolution of the V4 engine.

The Spaniard also got his second chance to evaluate Ohlins suspension. He and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso first tried Ohlins at the Brno test, after which Dovizioso chose to switch to the Swedish brand.