Hopkins heads Shanghai practice.

Having been second in opening practice, Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins went one better in the afternoon session to set the overall Friday pace at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hopper, who qualified second and finished fourth at Shanghai last season, was fastest for much of the first half of the afternoon hour, then returned to the top in the final minute - after Colin Edwards, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa had taken turns to lead.

Gresini Honda's Marco Melandri benefited from a Hayden slipstream to snatch a late second place, just 0.099secs behind Hopkins, leaving 2006 event winner Pedrosa third and his Repsol Honda team-mate Hayden fourth - the reigning world champion enjoying his best opening day of the season so far.

Shanghai's enormous 1200m straight was expected to play into the hands of the four Ducati riders, due to their peerless top speed, a theory that gathered further momentum when world championship leader Casey Stoner set the morning pace, but - despite again dominating the top four places on the speed chart this afternoon - the lead Desmosedici, of Loris Capirossi, was only fifth.

However, lap times were ultra-close, with Capirossi just 0.161secs from Hopkins and sixth placed Rossi only 0.186secs from the front. Then came the Italian's team-mate Edwards, with double 2007 winner Stoner rounding out a Friday top eight covered by just 0.256secs!

Emphasising the need for a balanced bike around Shanghai was the fact that Hopkins was only 14th fastest through the speed trap, some 15km/h slower than the d'Antin Ducati of Alex Barros (329km/h), but - as things stand - the Desmosedicis will still have a clear advantage in terms of overtaking ability in the race. Having been on the receiving end of Ducati horsepower at Qatar, Rossi will also be wary after giving away 13.3km/h to Barros this afternoon.

One rider who may not start Sunday's grand prix is Kawasaki's Olivier Jacque; the Frenchman - who triggered a first lap pile-up at Istanbul two weeks ago - fell at the final turn with 17 minutes to go, and was then seen holding his right arm as he rushed towards the marshals.


Friday practice:

1. Hopkins
2. Melandri
3. Pedrosa
4. Hayden
5. Capirossi
6. Rossi
7. Edwards
8. Stoner
9. Hofmann
10. Checa
11. de Puniet
12. Vermeulen
13. Barros
14. Elias
15. Tamada
16. Roberts
17. Guintoli
18. Jacque
19. Nakano

Crash