DOHA, April 6: World champion Casey Stoner threw down the gauntlet to his rivals in impressive style on Thursday when he topped the first free practice for the season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar.

The Australian Honda rider clocked 1min 56.474sec to edge out former champion Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha with Ducati’s Nicky Hayden almost half a second off the pace in third.

First free practice times: MotoGP: 1 Casey Stoner (AUS/Honda) 1:56.474, 2 Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) at 0.174, 3 Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati) 0.450, 4 Ben Spies (USA/Yamaha) 0.508, 5 Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 0.656, 6 Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Yamaha) 0.921, 7 Alvaro Bautista (ESP/Suzuki) 1.038, 8 Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda) 1.073, 9 Hector Barbera (ESP/Ducati) 1.438, 10 Valentino Rossi (ITA/Ducati) 1.440, 11 Karel Abraham (CZE/Ducati) 1.465, 12 Stefan Bradl (GER/Honda) 2.460, 13 Randy de Puniet (FRA/Aprilia) 3.511, 14 Colin Edwards (USA/Suter-BMW) 3.570, 15 Michele Pirro (ITA/FTR-Honda) 3.848, 16 Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) 4.246, 17 Ivan Silva (ESP/Kawasaki-FTR) 4.664, 18 Mattia Pasini (ITA/Aprilia) 4.787, 19 Yonny Hernandez (COL/Kawasaki-FTR) 4.802, 20 Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ioda) 4.878.

Moto2: First session: 1 Thomas Luthi (SUI/Suter) 2:01.284, 2 Esteve Rabat (ESP/Kalex) at 0.402, 3 Pol Espargaro (ESP/Kalex) 0.641, 4 Marc Marquez (ESP/Suter) 0.784, 5 Simone Corsi (ITA/FTR) 0.980. Second session: 1 Thomas Luthi (SUI/Suter) 2:00.767, 2 Claudio Corti (ITA/Kalex) at 0.151, 3 Pol Espargaro (ESP/Kalex) 0.431, 4 Esteve Rabat (ESP/Kalex) 0.435, 5 Scott Redding (GBR/Kalex) 0.569.

Moto3: First session: 1 Maverick Vinales (ESP/FTR Honda) 2:09.762, 2 Louis Rossi (FRA/FTR Honda) at 0.218, 3 Luis Salom (ESP/Kalex KTM) 0.539, 4 Miguel Oliveira (POR/Honda) 0.623, 5 Sandro Cortese (GER/KTM) 1.118.

Second session: 1 Maverick Vinales (ESP/FTR Honda) 2:08.160, 2 Zulfahmi Khairuddin (IND/KTM) at 0.498, 3 Danny Kent (GBR/KTM) 0.807, 4 Miguel Oliveira (POR/Honda) 0.819, 5 Axel Rins (ESP/Honda) 0.947.—AFP