Casey Stoner tops final MotoGP practice session for Indianapolis Grand Prix

The Honda rider was knocked off the top spot by the Yamaha of Ben Spies after 25 minutes, but responded just a few seconds later with a lap of 1m39.538s, which broke the outright track record set in qualifying by Dani Pedrosa in 2009.

That time remained undefeated for the remaining 20 minutes of the session, with Spies' time - 0.132s slower - good enough for second overall on a morning that featured far quicker times than the previous day thanks to the new track surface continuing to 'rubber-in'.

Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were third and fifth, completing a good session for the Honda squad, while Marco Simoncelli split the pair on his Gresini-run RCV212 in fourth.

Colin Edwards was sixth on his Tech 3 Yamaha, one spot ahead of world champion and factory Yamaha man Jorge Lorenzo, who was over a second off championship leader Stoner's best time.

The Ducatis of Valentino Rossi and Randy de Puniet - the latter riding a Pramac-run machine - were next up while Alvaro Bautista snuck his Suzuki into 10th at the end of the session at the expense of Rossi's team-mate Nicky Hayden.

The session was short on incident, although Bautista did endure a trip through the gravel with five minutes remaining - without coming off.

Hiroshi Aoyama went across the grass exiting Turn 3 on his Gresini Honda late on while Karel Abraham was the only rider to crash, the Czech coming off his Cardion AB Ducati at the last corner at the end of the session.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m39.538s
 2.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m39.670s  + 0.132s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m39.896s  + 0.358s
 4.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m40.301s  + 0.763s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m40.326s  + 0.788s
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m40.438s  + 0.900s
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m40.547s  + 1.009s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m40.698s  + 1.160s
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m40.915s  + 1.377s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m40.916s  + 1.378s
11.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m41.067s  + 1.529s
12.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m41.209s  + 1.671s
13.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m41.496s  + 1.958s
14.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m41.512s  + 1.974s
15.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m41.676s  + 2.138s
16.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m41.740s  + 2.202s
17.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m41.889s  + 2.351s