CASEY Stoner struck the first blow in the 2009 FIM MotoGP World Championship as he beat title rival Valentino Rossi in the first practice session of the opening grand prix in Qatar.

The Ducati Marlboro rider set a quickest time of one minute 57.053 seconds around the Losail circuit.

That edged out Rossi on the Fiat Yamaha as the defending champion's best lap was 1:57.439.

But the major surprise was veteran Colin Edwards who put the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha into third on the timesheets with a best lap of 1:57.835.

Fourth was Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo with a best lap of 1:58.272.

The fifth best time of the session went to San Carlo Honda Gresini's Alex de Angelis, ahead of Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, Pramac Ducati's MotoGP rookie Mika Kallio and Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso.

It was a good day for Marco Melandri as he gave the Hayate Racing Team a top-ten slot with ninth on their debut in MotoGP.

The top ten was completed by Randy de Puniets LCR Honda.

Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden was a disappointing 13th and Chris Vermeulen, on the second Rizla Suzuki, was only 14th.

Dani Pedrosa, who is still recovering from surgery in pre-season, was the slowest of the 18 riders on what was a bad day for the Repsol Honda team.