Stoner leads morning session

The Honda rider had exchanged the top spot with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo and Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli in the early part of the session before establishing himself on top with a 1m43.918s.

That was enough to guarantee Stoner first position by half a second over Simoncelli, as the rain that had been occasionally spitting over the circuit during the morning became more insistent in the final few minutes and forced all the riders back to their garages.

Lorenzo ended up third ahead of team-mate Ben Spies, with Dovizioso - on the only other works Honda this weekend with Dani Pedrosa sidelined - taking fifth. The Italian was the only man to decide it was worth taking a few laps on wet tyres at the end of the session.

The two Tech 3 Yamahas were sixth and seventh, with Nicky Hayden top Ducati in eighth, followed by team-mate Valentino Rossi and Gresini Honda's second rider Hiroshi Aoyama.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike      Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda          1m43.918s
 2.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda  1m44.404s  + 0.486s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha         1m44.643s  + 0.725s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha         1m44.646s  + 0.728s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda          1m44.730s  + 0.812s
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha  1m44.768s  + 0.850s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha  1m44.797s  + 0.879s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati         1m44.799s  + 0.881s
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati         1m44.844s  + 0.926s
10.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda  1m45.332s  + 1.414s
11.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati  1m45.821s  + 1.903s
12.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati  1m46.136s  + 2.218s
13.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda      1m46.714s  + 2.796s
14.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki         1m46.860s  + 2.942s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati 1m47.587s  + 3.669s
16.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati   1m47.832s  + 3.914s