Motorcycling: Stoner tops Valencia practice

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Motorcycling: Stoner tops Valencia practice

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Casey Stoner topped the times in the first two free practice sessions of Valencia MotoGP.

05 November,2011 03:53 am

Australias freshly crowned world champion Casey Stoner topped the times in the first two free practice sessions on Friday ahead of Sundays season-closing Valencia MotoGP.The Honda rider set the early benchmark with a time of 1min 45.513sec, with team-mate Dani Pedrosa 0.223sec back in second and multiple former champion Valentino Rossis Ducati in third at 0.315sec.In Moto2, Germanys Stefan Bradl is poised to take the 2011 title as Spaniard Marc Marquez, the only rider close enough in the standings to deny him the championship, is likely to miss the race.Marquez has suffered from vision problems since falling in testing for last months Malaysia GP and sat out Fridays rain-hit practice.Sundays race is being staged in the shadow of Italian former Moto2 champion Marco Simoncellis death a fortnight ago in Sepang.