Stoner carries on with practice domination

The Ducati Marlboro rider was more than seven tenths of a second ahead of anyone else, just as he did in the previous two sessions held yesterday.

The reigning champion got on the track after most other riders and got to the top of the timesheets with 42 minutes to go in the one-hour session, and was never challenged since. The fourth time he improved on his own best lap, with 25 minutes to go, he was one second quicker than the opposition.

Further efforts from Fiat Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi and Honda Gresini's Shinya Nakano reduced that gap, but when Rossi got within three tenths of Stoner's time with two minutes remaining, the Australian moved the goalposts yet again by setting his final best at 1:21.46, 0.707 seconds quicker than Rossi.

An impressive Nakano settled for third, followed by Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen in fourth and a possibly resurgent Marco Melandri in fifth on the other factory Ducati.

Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden was sixth-quickest and best of the Michelin runners. Except for the two Tech 3 Yamahas, all bikes fitted with the French rubber ran with cut rear tyres, despite the track being completely dry, in an effort to find grip.

Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa did not take part in this free practice session to save himself ahead of this afternoon's qualifying, while recovering from last week's injury.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:21.461
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:22.168 + 0.707
 3.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:22.343 + 0.882
 4.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.533 + 1.072
 5.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:22.758 + 1.297
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:22.770 + 1.309
 7.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:22.833 + 1.372
 8.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:22.967 + 1.506
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.988 + 1.527
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:23.138 + 1.677
11.  Ben Spies         Suzuki    (B)  1:23.171 + 1.710
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:23.179 + 1.718
13.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:23.233 + 1.772
14.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:23.234 + 1.773
15.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:23.338 + 1.877
16.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:23.358 + 1.897
17.  Jamie Hacking     Kawasaki  (B)  1:23.663 + 2.202
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:24.165 + 2.704