Valentino Rossi tops the charts, in first Free Practice session, at Phillip Island.

Friday, October 16, 2009 – Australia – Valentino Rossi, after his Estoril disappointment, where he finished 4th and with a record margin of 23 seconds behind a teammate, in a race he has not crashed and remounted, topped the time-sheets, in the first free practice session of the island circuit.

In the cool and dry conditions of Phillip Island circuit, the six time premier class champion, Rossi, was on the pace from the very beginning, recording his best time of 1’31.032 on his tenth lap of the 31 laps he completed in the session. He looked really comfortable throughout the session, and struck a psychological blow to his teammate and championship main rival, Jorge Lorenzo, who low-sided his M1, at the end of the session and was down by more than a second off the Italian’s best time. He could only manage a sixth place in time-sheets.

Casey Stoner, home boy, who won here in the last two races, recorded his best time of 1’31.167, 0.135s off Rossi’s best time, on the very last lap of his 22 laps on the Ducati Marlboro Desmosedici GP9.

Dani Pedrosa, who crashed here last time out, looked to amend his fortune, as he registerd third fastest lap time, half a second down to Rossi’s pace. So, he will be challenging for the podium.