Stoner also tops dry Donington warm-up
Reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner showed he also has the race pace in sunny conditions after topping the warm-up ahead of this afternoon's British Grand Prix
In a dry but windy Donington Park the Ducati Marlboro rider, who qualified in pole position in the wet yesterday, set a string of blistering laps mid-way through the 25-minute session, and further improved with a last run when time ran out.
In the end the Australian's best lap time was a 1:29.325, which was over half a second faster than second-quickest Valentino Rossi, who will start from the second slot of the grid with his Fiat Yamaha.
A further tenth back was Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who will however have his work cut out this afternoon with his lowly ninth place in qualifying.
Next up were the customer Hondas of rookies Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot) and Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Gresini), followed by the Tech 3 Yamaha of Colin Edwards and the Nicky Hayden's factory Honda with its new pneumatic-valve engine.
LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet, Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, and Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins complete the top ten.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:29.325 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:29.845 + 0.520 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (M) 1:29.937 + 0.612 4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:29.997 + 0.672 5. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:30.058 + 0.733 6. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:30.108 + 0.783 7. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:30.234 + 0.909 8. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:30.301 + 0.976 9. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:30.347 + 1.022 10. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:30.511 + 1.186 11. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:30.528 + 1.203 12. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:30.620 + 1.295 13. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:30.665 + 1.340 14. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:30.774 + 1.449 15. Ben Spies Suzuki (B) 1:31.244 + 1.919 16. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:31.487 + 2.162 17. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:31.591 + 2.266 18. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:32.320 + 2.995
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