Stoner tops wet/dry practice

The morning rain meant poor track conditions for most of the session, with Honda rider Stoner fastest by two seconds in the wet part of the running - though not everyone was pushing at that stage, with local hero Jorge Lorenzo preferring to not even run until the circuit was ready for slicks with 15 minutes to go.

Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista and Pramac Ducati's Randy de Puniet had brief moments of glory thanks to early changes to slicks, before Stoner thrust his Honda back to the front on dry rubber.

He continually improved his time until reaching a final benchmark of 1m42.940s.

Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli was his main rival, and got close to briefly heading Stoner on one run before a mistake in the final part of the lap. He ended up half a second adrift in second.

Andrea Dovizioso completed a one-two-three for the factory-spec Hondas, ahead of the two works Yamahas, with Lorenzo a second clear of team-mate Ben Spies.

Valentino Rossi was top Ducati rider in sixth, followed by Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow.

The latter's team-mate Colin Edwards had the only accident of the session, falling at Turn 5. He had to removed from the scene on a stretcher and was taken to the circuit's medical centre for a shoulder injury to be investigated.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike      Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m42.940s
 2.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m43.468s  + 0.528s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m43.603s  + 0.663s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m43.810s  + 0.870s
 5.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m44.859s  + 1.919s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m44.944s  + 2.004s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m45.136s  + 2.196s
 8.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m45.666s  + 2.726s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m45.715s  + 2.775s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m45.751s  + 2.811s
11.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m45.760s  + 2.820s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m46.126s  + 3.186s
13.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m46.280s  + 3.340s
14.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m46.366s  + 3.426s
15.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m46.501s  + 3.561s
16.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m51.512s  + 8.572s