Stoner top rookie on Valencia day one.

Casey Stoner may have lost out on the 2005 250cc World Championship to Dani Pedrosa, but the young Australian scored a victory of sorts over the Spaniard during testing at Valencia today (Wednesday) when he took top rookie honours.

Both riders were effectively making their MotoGP debuts, although Pedrosa briefly rode an RCV one-year ago, and each would complete a similar number of laps - Dani notching a total of 62 and Stoner 69 - at the end of which Stoner was 0.5secs faster. Stoner was also just 0.6secs from day one pace setter Nicky Hayden.

Pedrosa will ride for the Repsol Honda team in MotoGP next year, while Stoner is set to spend his debut premier-class season with Honda Pons, after also agreeing a multiple year deal which Crash.net understands is directly with HRC (rather than with Pons).

If true, that would mean that Honda can place him in whichever of their MotoGP teams they wish - and that Stoner has a better chance of graduating to a full factory ride in future seasons.

Meanwhile, Sito Pons has yet to formally announce his 2006 rider line-up, possibly due to the ongoing Max Biaggi/Camel saga, but is running former factory Ducati rider Carlos Checa alongside Stoner at the test - and it is looking ever more likely that the Spaniard will ride alongside Casey next season.

"Today we have been working with Carlos Checa and Casey Stoner preparing for the new season in 2006. Both riders have shown great potential with the RCV and have adapted to the machine very quickly," said Pons after day one of the test.

"Carlos had a crash this morning but returned to the track in the afternoon and set some good times, Casey was a about a tenth off a second quicker but he had more time on the bike. I'm quite happy with both riders and look forward to testing with them," he added.

Testing continues tomorrow (Thursday).