Stoner under pole in FP1, Spies falls.

By Lynne Huntting

Ducati Marlboro's reigning MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner dominated first free practice for the US Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Stoner, winner of the past three races and now 20 points from the title lead, kept turning up the wick, setting his best time of 1min 21.915secs on lap 23 of the 28 he rode. That time is already quicker than his own 2007 pole position lap.

"At the start the track surface was a little cool but grip wasn't bad and after a few laps it was back to a normal level," said Stoner. "It took a few laps to get used to the new bumps that have emerged since last season though.

"In general the track is in good shape and I enjoyed riding because it's a fun layout and we found a good set-up pretty quickly, using the base from last year. That allowed us to improve as the session went on and I think that if it wasn't for a bit of traffic at the end I could have gone even faster.

"For now I'm very satisfied but we have to keep working hard because the temperatures are sure to keep rising in the afternoon and that will have an effect on the track conditions."

Injured Dani Pedrosa sat at the other end of the charts during the hour long session. He worked his way up from last to eighteenth out of nineteen riders, with a time of 1min 25.311secs, before being eclipsed.

Pedrosa pitted after 12 laps. He then went back out at the end of the session, but he never got faster, and finished the session in last place with 21 laps to his name. Pedrosa walks with a decided limp as a result of his Sachsenring accident, which cost him the world championship lead by 16 points to Valentino Rossi and left him with a fractured finger and wrist, in addition to a sprained ankle.

Rossi is still working on his target of "trying to improve on my best result" at Laguna Seca, a third place in 2005. He was second in morning practice, setting his fastest lap near the end of the session, but was 0.764secs behind Stoner.

The Doctor looks to have finally got the hang of this track. He's never been a fan of Mazda Raceway but, while stopping short of actually saying he liked the track during Thursday's informal media conference, he did say "I'm very happy now. They have come to a lot of riders and asked for their input. I think they have done their best. The level of safety is quite good."

Third through fifth fastest were Shinya Nakano (San Carlos Honda Gresini); Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP); and Marco Melandri (Ducati Marlboro Team) - Melandri enjoying a highly promising start to what could be his last weekend as a Ducati rider.

"Finally we've had a 'proper' free practice - I'm pleased," said Marco. "At the beginning the circuit was tricky but that was probably because of the fact it was cool, because suddenly the grip came in.

"I had a good feeling from the start with the bike, I was getting decent feedback and that is something I've been missing a lot this year. I was able to ride well and stay on the good line.

"From then on we made constant progress, refining the base set-up that we used at Sachsenring. Now we need to try and continue like this in the next session, when the temperature will no doubt be higher, because I want a good race here."

Pedrosa's team-mate and American favourite Nicky Hayden was sixth fastest on the second Repsol Honda. Hayden was the leading Michelin rider, with Bridgestone sweeping the top five.

Wild-card rider Ben Spies tumbled from his Rizla Suzuki at Turn Four, his bike doing cartwheels in the gravel trap, while Spies walked away. The emergency crew wrestled with the motorcycle, getting it together enough to be carried away. He was running seventh at the time but later slipped back to eleventh with a best lap of 1min 23.950secs.

Replacement rider for the recovering John Hopkins, Jamie Hacking, was twelfth fastest for Kawasaki during his first ever MotoGP session.

The session got off to a late start. The weather started out overcast and cool, but by the end the sun was breaking through the clouds.

MotoGP has another hour-long practice session this afternoon.