Stoner completes practice sweep

The Honda rider's 1m42.691s on only his fourth lap of the morning was good enough to keep him in front until the end.

But Yamaha showed better form than on Friday, with Jorge Lorenzo taking second and closing to within 0.122 seconds of Stoner on his last run.

Marco Simoncelli remained among the front group in third on the Gresini Honda, ahead of the second Yamaha of Ben Spies and Stoner's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Nicky Hayden was an encouraging sixth for Ducati, while his team-mate Valentino Rossi was eighth after crashing at Turn 5. The Italian lost control on the way into the corner but was able to quickly walk away unhurt and was back out on his spare bike within five minutes.

Loris Capirossi had an accident at the same spot, and was also unhurt, rejoining on his spare bike to take ninth in the end. His Pramac Ducati team-mate Randy de Puniet took a trip through the gravel without incident and later stalled on track while trying to do a practice start after the chequered flag.

Tech 3 Yamaha's sole representative for the rest of the weekend Cal Crutchlow split the Ducatis in seventh, and Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10 on the Suzuki.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m42.691s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m42.813s  + 0.122s
 3.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m43.130s  + 0.439s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m43.478s  + 0.787s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m43.628s  + 0.937s
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m43.669s  + 0.978s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m43.883s  + 1.192s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m44.364s  + 1.673s
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m44.457s  + 1.766s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m44.504s  + 1.813s
11.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m44.510s  + 1.819s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m44.541s  + 1.850s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m44.642s  + 1.951s
14.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m44.762s  + 2.071s
15.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m44.963s  + 2.272s