The special 40-minute ‘qualifying’ session at Jerez saw a tremendous performance by world champion Casey Stoner, as the Ducati man collected his second brand new BMW in four months.

Stoner won his first BMW sports car at the 2007 Valencia season finale, when he wrapped up the best qualifier of the season award, and the Australian picked up where he left off at a wet Jerez.

Casey instantly stamped his authority on the slowly drying track, overtaking title rival Valentino Rossi in the early stages before pulling a huge 3.2secs clear of the competition after just five laps.

Stoner then sat calmly in the pits, with his arms crossed, to see if anyone could get near his mark. They couldn’t, but Stoner made sure of the car by returning to the track for the final five minutes, by which time his lead was still 1.5secs, over countryman Anthony West.

The closing stages saw Nicky Hayden, and then Rossi, emerge as best of the rest behind Stoner - but the seven-times world champion, riding with Bridgestone tyres in the wet for the first time today, was left 1.3secs behind Stoner.

Honda rider Hayden 0.2secs further back as the top Michelin rider, while West was bumped back to fourth for Kawasaki.

Top rookie was JiR Scot Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, two seconds behind Stoner, while Honda Gresini’s Shinya Nakano, Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi, LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet, Alice Team’s Sylvain Guintoli and Stoner’s team-mate Marco Melandri completed the top ten.

Melandri, who fell this morning, was 2.9secs slower than a smiling Stoner, who received a round of applause when he returned to the Ducati pits - before being presented with his new Z4 M Roadster.

Injured riders John Hopkins and Dani Pedrosa chose not to risk further damage and sat out the session.