De Puniet stays on top at Sepang

The Frenchman set his fastest time in the morning session and, despite a minor off before lunch, he was able to complete a run of fast consistent laps throughout the day.

Behind De Puniet, Colin Edwards continued to get to grips with his Tech 3 Yamaha to set the second fastest time, leading former Fiat Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi.

In fact, it was a good day for Yamaha, with Jorge Lorenzo setting the fourth fastest time to just edge out reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, who spent the day concentrating on Bridgestone development work.

The Australian's day, however, finished early after having to stop riding because of shoulder cramps.

John Hopkins showed improved form onboard his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR to be sixth quickest, ahead of Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi.

"We started out this morning by running through some tyres that Bridgestone have brought here, basically to try and identify what will work for the first race of the season in Qatar," said Hopkins. "It was a useful test, I felt pretty comfortable on the bike and I think it will stand us in good stead come Qatar.

"We've also continued the evaluation of the two chassis options we have here, and at the moment we've gone with the one closest to the 2007 spec. The other chassis option has some positive points, but we need to do some more work on a few areas before we go with it on the race bike.

"The engineers will now take this chassis back to Japan, together with the data on it that we've collected, and I guess we will be testing further revisions pretty soon. Tomorrow I'll do a long distance run, and then we'll be looking to refine the set-up of the bike to suit my personal preferences, which I'm looking forward to."

Former world champion Nicky Hayden once again completed the greatest number of laps, as he had to undertake an expanded programme of work following the departure of injured Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa.

Today's times:

Pos  Rider          Team               Time      Laps
 1.  De Puniet      LCR Honda          2:01.139   63
 2.  Edwards        Yamaha Tech3       2:01.327   46
 3.  Rossi          Fiat Yamaha        2:01.437   60
 4.  Lorenzo        Fiat Yamaha        2:01.583   54
 5.  Stoner         Ducati Marlboro    2:01.638   34
 6.  Hopkins        Kawasaki Racing    2:01.874   50
 7.  Capirossi      Rizla Suzuki       2:01.917   59
 8.  Dovizioso      Jir Team Scot      2:02.006   54
 9.  Nakano         Honda Gresini      2:02.095   54
10.  Hayden         Repsol HRC         2:02.102   66
11.  Toseland       Yamaha Tech3       2:02.276   59
12.  Vermeulen      Rizla Suzuki       2:02.371   44
13.  West           Kawasaki Racing    2:02.579   59
14.  De Angelis     Honda Gresini      2:02.914   41
15.  Elias          Alice Team         2:03.311   57
16.  Melandri       Ducati Marlboro    2:03.380   46
17.  Jacque         Kawasaki Racing    2:03.462   36
18.  Guintoli       Alice Team         2:04.217   37
19.  Serizawa       Kawasaki Racing    2:04.382   49
20.  Canepa         Ducati Test        2:04.427   47