Hayden tops times late in final practice

Hayden headed the times in the opening minutes before Casey Stoner took over at the top after seven minutes, lowering the mark twice on his following two laps to a 1:30.667 with just under 50 minutes of the session remaining.

That time stood on top until Stoner himself went faster with a 1:30.617 with three minutes remaining. But with less than 30 seconds of the session remaining, Hayden fought back and set the fastest time of the session with a time of 1:30.558, edging Stoner out by 0.059 of a second.

Earlier, it looked like Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo might have been the rider to challenge Stoner's time, setting a time of 1:30.712 with a third of the hour-long session remaining. But he was unable to go faster as the session wound down, finishing just over a tenth ahead of Alex de Angelis and Colin Edwards.

Just under half a second off Hayden's pace was Valentino Rossi, just under a tenth of a second ahead of another Yamaha of James Toseland, who had Andrea Dovizioso and Shinya Nakano hot on his heels.

With the top twelve riders covered by less than a second, Dani Pedrosa's tenth fastest time, just fractions of a second ahead of Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet, isn't as bad as it might sound, but he still ended the session over eight tenths behind his teammate.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:30.558
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:30.617  + 0.059
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:30.702  + 0.144
 4.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:30.865  + 0.307
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:30.884  + 0.326
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:31.014  + 0.456
 7.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:31.092  + 0.534
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:31.154  + 0.596
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:31.186  + 0.628
10.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)  1:31.377  + 0.819
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:31.392  + 0.834
12.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:31.418  + 0.860
13.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:31.710  + 1.152
14.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:31.802  + 1.244
15.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:31.943  + 1.385
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:32.310  + 1.752
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:32.439  + 1.881
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:33.186  + 2.628