The opening session of track action for the premier class at the Gran Premio de Aragón saw Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa lead the pack ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner.

Pedrosa continued his recent great form upon returning from injury, topping the opening free practice session at the Motorland circuit with a best lap of 1’50.281. Yamaha Factory’s Lorenzo had topped the session with a 1’50.730 with five minutes to go until the Repsol Honda rider took back the lead in the final minutes, relegating the World Champion title defender to second.

Last year’s race winner Stoner set the pace early on under bright sun and climbing temperatures to end the session in third behind the Spaniards, with San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli following the Championship leader by a margin of 0.087s and ahead of fellow Italian and rival Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) in fifth.

Pramac Racing’s Randy de Puniet was the fastest Ducati in the session, laying down a lap of 1'51.376 to take the sixth spot in the timings, while Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) rode his factory Desmosedici into seventh just 0.042s behind the Frenchman.

Valentino Rossi debuted a new aluminum chassis replacing the current carbon fiber one and after running off the track twice upon his first outing with it, the Ducati Team rider elected to continue with the new frame for the remainder of the session to post the eighth fastest time behind his team mate.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was ninth in the timings ahead of steadily recovering and improving Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) in tenth.

The afternoon practice session for the MotoGP class was delayed and eventually postponed, with an extended final practice session for Saturday morning scheduled to run from 9.35am-10.50am local time. Qualifying practice will go ahead in the afternoon as originally scheduled.

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