Stoner ends Sepang test on top

The Australian, who had been fastest on the first two days, continued with his impressive pre-season form by finishing on top of the times with a lap of 1m59.665s.

Stoner finished ahead of team-mate Dani Pedrosa yet again, the Spaniard the only other man to break the two-minute barrier.

"We had a good day comparing the chassis' again and I'm happy we have made our decision on which one we'll use for the season," said Stoner. "We also tried a lot of electronics with engine braking and found improvements in a few areas, and some losses in others so we need to rectify these.

"The chassis we've chosen always behaves in the way we want it to, no matter what set-up we use, we are also able to adapt it fairly easily. So when we get to Qatar in a few weeks we'll be able to test different set-up's at the same time and get more track time on it.

"Some changes can be quite time consuming to do, so having the two bikes with identical chassis will be useful. The test here has been very productive for us, we did a long run here today - almost race distance - and gathered some key information. I'm feeling more and more comfortable on the RC212V and I can't wait to get to Qatar".

Gresini's Marco Simoncelli posted a promising third fastest time, with Andrea Dovizioso on the third works Honda in fourth to complete another dominant day for the Japanese manufacturer.

Ben Spies was the first non-Honda rider with the fifth quickest time on the Yamaha, but the American was a full second off the pace set by Stoner.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo was seventh on the the other works Yamaha, while Valentino Rossi was back in action after having to miss yesterday's session because of the flu.

The Ducati rider finished in 11th nearly two seconds off the pace after 59 laps.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap        Laps
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m59.665s             37
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m59.803s  + 0.138s   38
 3.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   2m00.163s  + 0.498s   46
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           2m00.541s  + 0.876s   45
 5.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          2m00.678s  + 1.013s   32
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   2m00.966s  + 1.301s   29
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          2m01.003s  + 1.338s   48
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          2m01.194s  + 1.529s   34
 9.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   2m01.328s  + 1.663s   48
10.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    2m01.346s  + 1.681s   21
11.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          2m01.469s  + 1.804s   59
12.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          2m01.469s  + 1.804s   71
13.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   2m01.493s  + 1.828s   39
14.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   2m02.034s  + 2.369s   50
15.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   2m02.155s  + 2.490s   42
16.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       2m02.410s  + 2.745s   57
17.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  2m02.506s  + 2.841s   55