Melandri reaches the top.

Marco Melandri's meteoric rise continued at Catalunya today as the young Italian put his Movistar Honda fastest of all at the completion of two opening free practice sessions around the Barcelona circuit.

Riding in perfect conditions, Melandri fought off the considerable challenge of Makoto Tamada to set the fastest Friday lap by less than one tenth of a second in a dramatic one hour afternoon session.

Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi, chasing his seventh win in Barcelona could not better his second best morning time and finished fifth overall behind Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards - fastest this morning - and the Repsol Honda of Nicky Hayden.

The first 11 riders were separated by less than one-second at the finish of the afternoon hour and the qualifying session tomorrow afternoon promises to be a cracker.

Tamada, riding the Konica Minolta Honda and showing no ill effects from the wrist he broke in Estoril two months ago, led the way after 15-minutes of the afternoon session. Hayden then took his turn at the front at the halfway stage while his team-mate Max Biaggi, who was second at Mugello last Sunday, ran off track and into the gravel.

By contrast Melandri, who won the 250cc race in Barcelona three years ago and finished on the MotoGP rostrum last year, was flying: He took the lead with 20-minutes remaining, only for Tamada to regain the advantage - for less than five seconds - on his last lap.

Then Melandri re-took the lead on his own final flyer, to set up his challenge of beating Rossi and winning his first MotoGP race on Sunday. Marco currently lies second in the championship, 49-points adrift of the reigning world champion and 2005 championship leader.

"We started off with the base setting we found here in the winter tests and I felt comfortable straight away," said Marco. "We made some adjustments in the afternoon and tried some new tyres from Michelin, which gave me a lot of grip at maximum lean.

"Tomorrow I want to try and improve my performance in the last section because I think I can make more time up there. In any case, I'm not getting too excited - there is a long way to go this weekend," he insisted.

Behind fifth fastest Rossi came the Marlboro Ducati of Loris Capirossi with the Camel Honda of Alex Barros seventh and John Hopkins' Suzuki eighth. It was a disappointing day for championship contenders, with Melandri's team-mate Sete Gibernau and Mugello runner-up Biaggi ninth and tenth respectively.

In the morning both Ruben Xaus and Shinya Nakano crashed without injury while local hero Toni Elias made a surprise return on the Fortuna Yamaha less than four weeks after breaking his wrist in a test session at Le Mans.

However, he finished just 19th fastest after completing only eight laps in the afternoon and will not compete in the race on Sunday. His place, as at Mugello, will be taken by David Checa.