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| Casey Stoner looks the man to beat ahead of this weekend's French MotoGP at Le Mans |
Former world champion Casey Stoner was fastest in both of Friday's practice sessions for Sunday's French MotoGP.
The Australian, who won the opening race of the season in Qatar, led a Honda one-two-three in both sessions with Marco Simoncelli and Dani Pedrosa finishing second and third at Le Mans.
Stoner's fastest lap of one minute 33.782 seconds in the afternoon session was 0.404 seconds faster than Italian Simoncelli, while Pedrosa failed to improve on his morning time of 1:34.431, with the afternoon session taking place in conditions considerably hotter than the morning.
Nicky Hayden, on a Ducati, claimed the fourth fastest time with Yamaha's defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo, the winner at Le Mans in 2009 and 2010, in fifth place.
Sixth was Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), who has finished on the podium six times at Le Mans.
Colin Edwards took seventh place on his Yamaha, with Hiroshi Aoyama eighth, former world champion Valentino Rossi ninth and Ben Spies 10th.
After three rounds of the 2011 world championship standings, Lorenzo leads the way with 65 points, four ahead of Pedrosa, with Stoner another 20 points behind in third place.
Speaking about his performance, second-placed Simoncelli told the official MotoGP website: "I am happy because we have taken a positive step from the morning to the afternoon. We have improved by almost a second and that is a lot.
