With late autumn Spanish sunshine bathing Valencia, Spain’s modern Ricardo Tormo circuit on Friday afternoon, Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner started the weekend of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship Series in a way that very well may allow which the Australian to score a third straight race win as he recorded the fastest lap time in Free Practice 1.

After overcoming some early handling issues which affected the overall response of his Desmosedici GP9, Stoner set a best time of 1’32.813 to leave Jorge Lorenzo next fastest.

Fiat Yamaha rider Lorenzo aims to secure second spot in the World Championship standings this weekend, ahead of Stoner, and followed the Australian by a margin of 0.382s.

Following his impressive first wet podium in Malaysia, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was third on the timesheet as he kept a close tab on Lorenzo, timing his fastest lap at just 0.046s slower.

Recently christened MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi completed the top four fastest times after experiencing a run-off midway through the session. He came in almost half a second ahead of Randy de Puniet, who recovered from his high-side crash at Sepang to ride a good session and record the fifth-fastest lap.

Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Loris Capirossi (Rizla) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) all recorded top-ten times in the session. New World Superbike Champion and Valencia wildcard Ben Spies was 15th on his factory Yamaha.