“This was a fantastic first day for us, especially the afternoon,” said Rossi. “In the race at Sepang a few weeks ago we had a few problems even though we had been very fast in preseason, and here it has been the opposite way around. We had a few difficulties in the morning but we worked them out in the afternoon and found a really good setting. The balance of the bike is excellent and when you have a good feeling at this circuit you can have a lot of fun.”

Kenny Roberts and Loris Capirossi will both miss out on the rest of the weekend’s action after falling at high speed in this morning’s opening session. Roberts fractured his left wrist when he crashed his Suzuki in the notoriously difficult Doohan curve, only to be followed to the medical centre by Capirossi after a virtually identical crash in the same corner. After initial tests the Italian appeared fit enough to return to the track for the afternoon session but further tests at the nearby Dandenong Private Hospital revealed internal bruising and ruled him out of Sunday’s race.

In Capirossi’s absence his Ducati team-mate Carlos Checa was the only man able to get close to Rossi today, with a late lap from the Spaniard closing the Italian’s advantage down to 0.270 seconds. Nicky Hayden and Sete Gibernau were the only two other riders within a second of Rossi’s best time, with fifth-fastest Alex Barros some 1.110 seconds adrift of the World Champion, who is aiming for his eleventh victory of the season.

Sebastián Porto followed up his clean sweep of pole position, lap record and race victory last season with the fastest time in today’s first qualifying practice for the 250cc race. Porto took provisional pole position ahead of local favourite Casey Stoner with a time of 1’33.117, with the Australian the only rider to get within half a second of the Argentinean. Hector Barberá and Jorge Lorenzo completed the provisional front row with reigning World Champion and current series leader Dani Pedrosa in sixth place.