Home hero Ben Spies goes fastest in warm-up for Indianapolis Grand Prix

The Yamaha rider knocked Casey Stoner's Honda off the top spot with three minutes to go and then improved his own time by just over a tenth of a second to end the session with a best lap of 1m39.621s.

Championship leader Stoner, who will start the race from pole position, was knocked back to third by his team-mate Dani Pedrosa by the end, the Spaniard just 0.102s slower than Spies.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo was fourth quickest on his Yamaha with Nicky Hayden an encouraging fifth on his Ducati.

Marco Simoncelli was sixth fastest on his Gresini Honda - one place ahead of Andrea Dovizioso's works bike. Colin Edwards leapt up to eighth at the end on his Tech 3 Yamaha with the top 10 rounded out by Hector Barbera's Aspar Ducati and the works machine of Valentino Rossi.

Pos  Rider              Team/Bike          Time       Gap
 1.  Ben Spies          Yamaha             1m39.621s 
 2.  Dani Pedrosa       Honda              1m39.723s  + 0.102s   
 3.  Casey Stoner       Honda              1m39.784s  + 0.163s        
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha             1m39.788s  + 0.167s 
 5.  Nicky Hayden       Ducati             1m39.988s  + 0.367s
 6.  Marco Simoncelli   Gresini Honda      1m40.234s  + 0.613s 
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso   Honda              1m40.291s  + 0.670s 
 8.  Colin Edwards      Tech 3 Yamaha      1m40.494s  + 0.873s 
 9.  Hector Barbera     Aspar Ducati       1m40.610s  + 0.989s 
10.  Valentino Rossi    Ducati             1m40.879s  + 1.258s 
11.  Randy de Puniet    Pramac Ducati      1m41.008s  + 1.387s 
12.  Hiroshi Aoyama     Gresini Honda      1m41.161s  + 1.540s 
13.  Karel Abraham      Cardion AB Ducati  1m41.222s  + 1.601s
14.  Cal Crutchlow      Tech 3 Yamaha      1m41.333s  + 1.712s
15.  Alvaro Bautista    Suzuki             1m41.482s  + 1.861s
16.  Loris Capirossi    Pramac Ducati      1m41.660s  + 2.039s 
17.  Toni Elias         LCR Honda          1m41.993s  + 2.372s