Redding posted an unofficial time of 1:36.5 in Valencia, blitzing the 1:37.067 time set Michele Pirro to qualify on pole for the Valencian Grand Prix back in November, to sit on top of the time sheets on day one.

Pol Espargaro was second fastest with a time of 1:37.0 whilst Claudio Corti was third fastest at 1:37.4, one tenth faster than former WSB rider Max Neukirchner.

Esteve Rabat, Thomas Luthi, Andrea Iannone, Simone Corse, Mika Kallio and Johann Zarco completed the top ten.

Former Moto2 champion Toni Elias was 11^th fastest with a time of 1:38.3, whilst Bradley Smith took his Tech 3 bike to a time of 1:38.8.

Season favourite and 2011 runner up, Marc Marquez is recovering from eye surgery and was not present at the test.

The Ducati rider had a rod inserted into his right tibia following a crash at Mugello back in 2010, with the rod remaining in his leg since then.

But the former World Champion went under the knife yesterday to remove the rod, with the operation at Cattolica’s Cervesi hospital pronounced a success.

“Valentino Rossi underwent a small operation this morning at Cattolica’s Cervesi hospital to remove the rod that was inserted in his right tibia following his practice crash at the 2010 Mugello GP,” Ducati said in a statement.

“The injury is now completely healed.”

“The operation went well, and the Ducati Team rider will be ready for the second test in Malaysia, scheduled for February 28 to March 1.”

The Repsol Honda team had been forced to add an additional 8.8lbs to Stoner’s Honda, with Stoner claiming that this “late” change to the rules has caused problems in cornering.

The Australian, who was half a second clear of his rivals in testing of the new machines at Sepang this week, said the team’s bikes had been “developed with a specific weight in mind” and that the situation was “rather frustrating”.

“We already had the bike developed and then they decided to change the regulations,” the Australian, who is due to become a father for the first time in a few weeks, said in an interview published by his team on Sunday.

“This affects the bike,” added the 26-year-old.

“It isn’t something that you notice much in your general riding, but unfortunately you do feel it quite a bit mid-corner.

“We have to try to adapt a little more and overcome this, but it is disappointing that the decision was made so late on.”

The American rider crashed while training on a dirt track near his home in Kentucky just two days after Christmas, breaking his left shoulder and three ribs, but elected not to have surgery at the time.

But after struggling to ride at the first test of the season at Sepang, Malaysia last week, the 30-year-old underwent scans which revealed that he had damaged cartilage in the shoulder and some muscles in his back.

The 2006 MotoGP world champion will have an operation to both assess and treat his injuries in California on today (Monday).

“Of course another operation before the season is never a good thing but I’m actually happy that I tried to ride at Malaysia, because it helped me to discover that the problem with the shoulder was bigger than we thought,” Hayden said.

“After seeing the scans, it was clear why I couldn’t ride well.”

The British rider impressed with some impressive times in Malaysia, finishing third fastest on day one, fifth fastest on day two and seventh fastest on day three - all on one of his least favourite circuits.

Crutchlow guided his Tech 3 Yamaha to a best time of 2:01.108, improving across the three days and the Coventry-born rider admitted that the signs are positive for 2012.

“I am really pleased with the way things have gone at this test and it has been a really good confidence boost to start 2012,” said Crutchlow. “Sepang is a track I just don’t get on with or enjoy riding at but I was third on the first day and fifth on the second day. I’m sure I could have been fifth on the final day too but a couple of things didn’t go my way.

“I had a crash early on at Turn 13 when I basically ran wide and got on the dirty part of the track. It was my fault and that cost me a fair bit of track time and when I was confident I could go a lot quicker at the end it started raining.

“The pleasing aspect is my times have been consistent and that bodes well for the future. I’m not as fast as Stoner, Spies, Pedrosa or Lorenzo but for consistency I’m the best of the rest. The new 1000cc YZR-M1 has kept the strong points of the 800 with good corner entry and turning. But we do need to look at improving the bike on corner exit.

“Being in the top five on the first two days and not far away on the final day is a great start but I’m not going to get carried away. This is only the first test and while testing is really important, it is what happens in Qatar on April 8 that is really important.”

The world champion set a time of 1:59.607 on only his second lap of the day in Malaysia, making him the only rider to lap under two minutes.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was 0.591 seconds behind with a time of 2:00.198, with Honda’s Dani Pedrosa making up the top three. Ben Spies, on the other Yamaha, claimed the fourth fastest time as the time sheets took on a familiar look.

Valentino Rossi showed signs of improvement with a fifth fastest time of 2:00.824, ahead of Hector Barbera and the Tech 3 Yamahas of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso. Alvaro Bautista and Nicky Hayden completed the top ten.

Once again, the CRT machines struggled to keep pace, taking up the last four places. Colin Edwards was the fastest of the four with a time of 2:04.772, still 1.689 seconds behind Ducati test rider Franco Battaini, whilst the Avintia Racing bikes of Ivan Silva, Robertino Pietri and Jordi Torres recorded times of 2:08.225, 2:09.640 and 2:10.184 respectively.

Stoner posted a time of 2:00.895 in the afternoon session in Malaysia, putting him 0.157 seconds ahead of Yamaha’s Ben Spies by 0.157.

Jorge Lorenzo was third fastest with a time of 2:01.068, as just 0.173 seconds separated first from third. All of the top three riders managed to beat Dani Pedrosa’s pole qualifying time of 2:01.462 for last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

As on day one, Yamaha and Honda dominated the top of the time charts, with Dani Pedrosa fourth fastest and Brit Cal Crutchlow close behind in fifth. Hector Barbera completed the top six, whilst Valentino Rossi was the last rider to get within a second of Stoner.

Colin Edwards improved his time on the Suter-BMW by over a second from his time set in the morning, as he and the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team worked on setting up a different electronics package from yesterday.

Avintia Racing was not able to complete the day of testing due to issues with the engines in their BQR-FTR machine. Rider Ivan Silva completed just 16 laps with test riders Robertino Pietri and Jordi Torres making a handful of round each.

The former world champion posted a best time of 2:01.657 from his 30 laps, beating Dani Pedrosa’s time of 2:02.003 by 0.346 second. The lap, set on the new 1,000cc Yamaha M1, was two tenths slower than the pole qualifying time set by Pedrosa in Sepang back in October.

It was a good day for the Yamahas, with Cal Crutchlow guiding his Tech 3 to the third fastest time of the day, just ahead of Ben Spies. Andrea Dovizioso took his Tech 3 to the sixth fastest time, behind Valentino Rossi on the Ducati.

Casey Stoner sat the day out after injuring a muscle in his back warming up in the morning in preparation to ride.

As expected, the CRT bikes brought up the rear on the time sheets, typically being around 5-6 seconds behind the slowest 1,000cc bikes.

Colin Edwards was the fastest CRT rider, recording a time of 2:07.163 as he worked on the electronics of the BMW-Suter.

The CRT development progress continued, with NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards putting in 12 laps on the BMW-Suter, with much of his time going into electronics development. The Texan paced ahead of Avintia Racing rider Ivan Silva, who also made 12 laps, while test rider Jordi Torres completed 42 at the controls of the BQR-FTR machine.

As the Italian team prepares for the first official test of 2012 following a winless 2011 season, Guareschi has warned fans that he is not expecting an immediate turn-around in fortunes in Malaysia this week.

Asked by Gazzetta dello Sport about his expectations for the Sepang test, Guareschi said: “We’ll have to see what our rivals have done: it’s been said they’ve worked hard, especially Honda.

“A good result could be to finish the three-day session within one or 1.2 seconds off the quickest riders. With a completely new bike, that kind of result should not be scorned.”

The Ducati GP12 made its track testing debut at Jerez last week in the hands of Carlos Checa and Franco Battaini, but Guareschi said it was purely a shakedown and would not be drawn on the early indications about the bike’s form.

“I’m not saying anything about the results of that test,” he said. “But in any case the imperative was not to risk anything, since we used the two bikes that then had to be sent to Malaysia. The objective was to understand whether everything was okay, and for that we need to be content, since they ran with no problems.

“Now it’s up to the teams. Jeremy Burgess and Juan Martinez, the two chief technicians, will decide how to set up the programme. We have a completely new bike and we need to work on its complete set-up, for both chassis and electronics.

“The 1000cc bike has more power, but the important thing is to put that power down on the asphalt.”

Hayden is currently recovering from a broken left shoulder blade and two broken ribs from a flat track crash during the last week of December, but has been working on regaining full fitness ahead of the first test of 2012.

Whilst Hayden did not take part in any of the racing events at Ducati’s recent Wrooom launch, the former champion has been doing daily two-wheeled training with his brothers, Tommy and Roger-Lee, in California.

“I love motorcycles, off-road, on-road…anything. I grew up flat tracking and I still follow it and do it for training,” he recently said in an interview with the online magazine On Track Off Road.

And should he need to defend his choice of using flat-track to train despite the obvious risk of injury, Hayden said, “I believe riding any kind of motorbike is the best training. You can do as many push ups as you want at the gym, but there is nothing like using the muscles and the brain when you are on two-wheels.”