MotoGP: Rossi - fastest in practice

VALENTINO ROSSI went quickest in this morning's warm-up at Catalunya's sun-drenched racetrack, clinching top spot in the dying seconds of qualifying. The Italian went a full second faster than championship leader, Casey Stoner, who struggled to muscle his Ducati around Catalunya's twisty racetrack, ending up 5th overall.

John Hopkins put in a blistering final few laps to seal second place, knocking Dani Pedrosa to third in the final minutes. Pedrosa held top spot for the majority of the session, despite falling at one point but the diminutive Spaniard was unhurt and rejoined the session on his spare bike. Despite a herioc effort Pedrosa couldn't match either Rossi or Hopkins.

Rossi's fastest lap time was almost 1.5 seconds outside his existing 2006 lap record.

1st Valentino Rossi

2nd John Hopkins

3rd Dani Pedrosa

4th Tony Elias

5th Casey Stoner

6th Chris Vermuelen

7th Marco Melandri

8th Alex Barros

9th Colin Edwards