MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo is not panicked by Casey Stoner’s remarkable opening-day pace at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Yamaha rider Lorenzo leads Honda’s Dani Pedrosa by 23 points in the championship going into the second-last race of the season at Phillip Island on Sunday.

They are the only two riders who can win the crown – and Lorenzo knows the real race for him is against his fellow Spaniard, not Stoner.

“Casey is very fast. He’s on another level at this track,” Lorenzo said after the Australian dominated both practice sessions on Friday.

“But I think we are close to Dani so our goal is to try and beat him.”

Just weeks after surgery on a serious ankle injury, Stoner produced scintillating speed to be the fastest man in both sessions by almost a second in each.

In his farewell appearance on home soil before he retires from MotoGP at the end of the season, Stoner didn’t let down a record Friday attendance of close to 30,000.

Chasing his sixth consecutive Australian Grand Prix win, Stoner laid down early markers in both sessions – then went even quicker as his rivals closed.

He was the only rider to break the 1min 30sec barrier for the day – his 1:29.999 fastest lap in session two beating allcomers comfortably.

Stoner admitted he was surprised by his Honda’s pace – which augurs well for qualifying on Saturday.

“To be honest, yeah. I was expecting them to close the gap considerably but I was still considerably faster with more or less race distance on my soft tyres,” Stoner said.

“It was very positive for us.”

Australian Kris McLaren, making his MotoGP debut as a late call-up replacement rider for the Avintia team, was slowest of the 20 riders in both practice sessions.