Edwards fastest in wet final practice

Ducati rider Casey Stoner set the early pace, and with just under half an hour remaining in the 45-minute session set a time of 2:02.665, a time which stood at the top of the times for most of the session.

In fact, it was only better by three riders, all in the final two minutes of the session.

First, Stoner went a tick faster with a 2:02.497, before a minute later Edwards, who hadn't set a particularly fast time until the final five minutes of the session, went seven-tenths faster with a 2:01.841.

With the chequered flag already waving, Yamaha's Valentino Rossi looked like he might knock Edwards off top spot but just failed to do so, missing out by 52 thousandths of a second.

Jorge Lorenzo was best of the rest ahead of Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen and Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden, but all three riders were between a second and two seconds off Edwards' pace.

The fastest Honda was that of Alex de Angelis in seventh place, one place ahead of Sete Gibernau's Ducati, who was closely followed by the Honda of Randy de Puniet and the factory Repsol Honda bikes of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso.

Two riders well off the pace nearly five seconds slower than Edwards were Marco Melandri on his Hayate Kawasaki and James Toseland on his Yamaha, the Tech 3 team ending the session with the slowest time as well as the fastest one.

Pos Rider                  Team                Time          Gap
 1. Colin Edwards          Tech 3 Yamaha       2:01.841
 2. Valentino Rossi        Yamaha              2:01.893   +0.052
 3. Casey Stoner           Ducati              2:02.497   +0.656
 4. Jorge Lorenzo          Yamaha              2:03.007   +1.166
 5. Chris Vermeulen        Suzuki              2:03.427   +1.586
 6. Nicky Hayden           Ducati              2:03.723   +1.882
 7. Alex de Angelis        Gresini Honda       2:04.136   +2.295
 8. Sete Gibernau          Hernando Ducati     2:04.454   +2.613
 9. Randy de Puniet        LCR Honda           2:04.469   +2.628
10. Dani Pedrosa           Honda               2:04.489   +2.648
11. Andrea Dovizioso       Honda               2:04.536   +2.695
12. Yuki Takahashi         Scot Honda          2:04.619   +2.778
13. Loris Capirossi        Suzuki              2:04.651   +2.810
14. Mika Kallio            Pramac Ducati       2:04.807   +2.966
15. Toni Elias             Gresini Honda       2:04.994   +3.153
16. Niccolo Canepa         Pramac Ducati       2:05.327   +3.486
17. Marco Melandri         Hayate Kawasaki     2:06.553   +4.712
18. James Toseland         Tech 3 Yamaha       2:06.734   +4.893