Edwards continues form at Qatar full house.

The full 2007 MotoGP grid gathered together for the first time in Qatar on Tuesday, when Colin Edwards continued his recent form to lead a Yamaha one-two at the head of the testing timesheets.

As well as the full attendance, the three-day Qatar test is particularly significant since the next time MotoGP returns to the Losail International Circuit will be for the season-opening grand prix, on March 10.

Edwards boosted his hopes for that event by picking up where he left off in Sepang last week - the Texan setting a 1min 56.774secs best to easily beat the fastest (990cc) race lap from last year's event as he edged out team-mate and former five-times world champion Valentino Rossi by just over a tenth of a second.

"We're coming here off the back of a fantastic test in Sepang and we've started on pretty good form again today," said Edwards. "Things aren't totally perfect; the first-choice front tyre that we found in Malaysia and which I was super-happy with isn't available here at the moment and I felt I was lacking a bit of feeling in the morning, but we changed a few things on the setting and at the end of the day everything made sense.

"Despite the good time we've definitely got room for improvement, which we hope will come with a couple of different tyres tomorrow and some new things we want to try on the setting. Anyway, the really encouraging thing is that we've come to a new track and the bike has worked well straight out of the box; let's hope that's the case everywhere this year! We did a lot of work on the braking in Sepang and we don't have any problems with that here, so it looks like we fixed those problems. It's been a very productive first day in every aspect," he added.

Rossi, who won last year's race, was also comfortable on the new 800cc Yamaha - and delighted that the dreaded chatter problems of 2006 look to have been solved.

"This is a very important test because the first race is here in just a few weeks, so we're working really hard in order to have the bike ready for that!" began the Italian. "Today was quite good and I am happy with the work we've done as a team; we were fast straight away and it's good to see that our bike works well at a different track. We continued to develop some things with the setting and we also worked on tyres with Michelin. This is a hard track for them so it's important we are ready with the tyres for the first race. The bike felt very good from the start and you can ride it well; we don't have any chatter, or any particular problems at all, so we're in a better position than last year. I am also happy because Colin is fast; in fact, he's a little bit faster than me! This is a good sign though, because it shows how good our bike is. Of course we still have areas to improve and so we will continue to work hard for the next two days."

In his best performance so far in pre-season, Casey Stoner was the fastest Ducati at Losail on Tuesday. The Australian joined Edwards and Rossi as one of only three riders to break the 1min 57secs barrier as he revisited the scene of his first ever premier class pole.

Heading an American trio that completed the top six, Kenny Roberts Jr was another rider to pick up the pace on the opening day in Qatar. After initial tests less than a month ago, the KR212V appears to have undergone a rapid development process as the team look to build on a resurgent final 990cc season.

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden was on the pace despite placing outside the fastest four, just under half a second off Edwards' fastest lap at a session where the top ten were all within a breath of each other. He continued work on the new Michelin 16" front tyre which is to become the French manufacturer's standard in 2007.

Suzuki's John Hopkins rounded off the top six, ahead of premier class veterans Loris Capirossi, Carlos Checa and Alex Barros, who suffered a light crash in the afternoon without consequences.

A rider thankfully staying accident-free was the returning Jeremy McWilliams, making a brave comeback after the numerous injuries he suffered at his previous test at Jerez. The Ilmor GP rider had to use crutches to move around the paddock but, once on the bike, was able to continue development of the newest team on the MotoGP grid's 800cc prototype - but was left over 10 seconds off the pace.

Testing continues on Wednesday and concludes on Thursday.