Hayden quickest in dry third practice

John Hopkins split the Repsol Honda bikes to take second ahead of Dani Pedrosa, with championship leader Casey Stoner in fourth.

The field rushed out at the start of the session to take advantage of the first relatively dry running of the weekend, with the track still slippery but significantly better than it had been on Friday.

After an early flurry of quick times, Hayden emerged at the head of the field with a 1:30.410 lap, 0.003 seconds ahead of Yamaha's Colin Edwards, with Hopkins completing a one-two-three for US riders at this stage.

Then with 20 minutes to go, Stoner moved to the top with a 1:29.934.

Pedrosa beat this mark by 0.004 seconds 12 minutes later, before Hayden - who is more comfortable than ever with his 800cc Honda after a recent breakthrough in testing - returned to the top on his final run with a 1:29.798.

Hopkins then slipped ahead of Pedrosa by just 0.001 seconds with the final lap of the hour.

LCR Honda rider Carlos Checa completed the top five, with Randy de Puniet continuing Kawasaki's strong practice form in sixth.

Edwards fell to seventh, just ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi - who had languished in 16th until his final lap, having fallen earlier in the session. He was left covered in mud, but unhurt.

Chris Vermeulen also fell at the Craner Curves, ending his session prematurely.

New Kawasaki rider Anthony West could not repeat his impressive wet weather speed on a dry track and ended the session 18th.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:29.798
 2.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:29.929  + 0.131
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:29.930  + 0.132
 4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:29.934  + 0.136
 5.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:30.317  + 0.519
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:30.394  + 0.596
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:30.413  + 0.615
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:30.493  + 0.695
 9.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:30.617  + 0.819
10.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:30.940  + 1.142
11.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:30.981  + 1.183
12.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:31.001  + 1.203
13.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:31.134  + 1.336
14.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:31.212  + 1.414
15.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:31.325  + 1.527
16.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:31.330  + 1.532
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:31.583  + 1.785
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:32.332  + 2.534
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:34.330  + 4.532