Hopkins fastest in final practice

The Rizla Suzuki rider ended the one-hour session at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit with a time of 1:35.128, six hundredths of a second quicker than Honda Gresini's Toni Elias.

Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner, winner of three out of four races this season, set the third best time of the day, 0.117 seconds slower than Hopkins.

Makoto Tamada was the surprise quickest Yamaha rider, taking his Dunlop-shod Tech 3 customer bike to fourth place.

He was followed by the works Fiat Yamaha of Colin Edwards, Randy de Puniet's Kawasaki, and Repsol Honda's reigning world champion Nicky Hayden.

Seven-time champion Valentino Rossi only managed to set the eighth fastest time with the other Fiat Yamaha, followed by the Honda Cecchinello of Carlos Checa and Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri.

Daniel Pedrosa was only 12th on the other works Honda, while Loris Capirossi was 15th on the works Ducati.

Kawasaki's Fonsi Nieto, who this weekend is deputising for the injured Oliver Jacque, was slowest with a time almost 1.7 seconds away from the top, and over 1.3 seconds away from teammate de Puniet.

Pos  Driver            Bike      Time
 1.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:35.128
 2.  Toni Elías        Honda     1:35.188  + 0.060
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:35.245  + 0.117
 4.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:35.276  + 0.148
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:35.278  + 0.150
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:35.358  + 0.230
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:35.391  + 0.263
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:35.397  + 0.269
 9.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:35.441  + 0.313
10.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:35.552  + 0.424
11.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:35.571  + 0.443
12.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:35.596  + 0.468
13.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:35.627  + 0.499
14.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:35.659  + 0.531
15.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:35.750  + 0.622
16.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:35.997  + 0.869
17.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:36.635  + 1.507
18.  K.Roberts Jr.     KR        1:36.731  + 1.603
19.  Fonsi Nieto       Kawasaki  1:36.821  + 1.693