Valentino Rossi and
Casey Stoner led one free practice session each during the opening day of the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, with the Italian's morning time proving to be the best lap of the day.
While superstar rookie
Jorge Lorenzo was having ankle injuries examined in hospital after a huge morning highside (see separate story), Fiat Yamaha team-mate Rossi romped to what proved the best lap of the day with a 1min 59.906secs circulation.
Rossi remained consistently near the top during the afternoon hour, when Stoner - second fastest this morning - set his best lap of the day to lead the Italian by just 0.052secs and confirm second overall on combined times.
The four Ducatis had occupied the top four positions in terms of maximum speed along the huge 1.2km back straight this morning, but Pedrosa broke the Italian monopoly with the second fastest top speed (3.3km/h behind
Sylvain Guintoli's 329.3km/h) this afternoon. The fastest top speed of the day was a 329.4km/h by Stoner in FP1.
Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa - currently tied with Lorenzo for the world championship lead - was third in both sessions, having reduced his margin to Rossi from almost one second this morning to less than half a second by the end of the second hour.
Gresini Honda rider
Shinya Nakano surprised by jumping from eleventh to fourth in the final minute of the afternoon, with
John Hopkins completing an impressive opening day for Kawasaki with fifth position, just in front of Pedrosa's team-mate
Nicky Hayden.
Hayden was the final rider to circulate within one-second of Rossi's morning best, while Gresini Honda's
Alex de Angelis, Rizla Suzuki's
Loris Capirossi, JiR Team Scot's
Andrea Dovizioso and Tech 3 Yamaha's
Colin Edwards completed the top ten.
Toni Elias enjoyed a relatively encouraging start with eleventh position for Alice Ducati, with Stoner's factory Ducati team-mate
Marco Melandri also making the most of Desmosedici power to claim 14th.
Tech 3 rookie
James Toseland was 13th fastest as he began the process of learning the lengthy Shanghai layout.
Friday practice:
1. Rossi
2. Stoner
3. Pedrosa
4. Nakano
5. Hopkins
6. Hayden
7. de Angelis
8. Capirossi
9. Dovizioso
10. Edwards
11. Elias
12. Vermeulen
13. Toseland
14. Melandri
15. West
16. de Puniet
17. Guintoli
18. Lorenzo
