Melandri leads test despite crash

The Gresini Honda rider, who had also been fastest on Friday, fell at the ultra fast Turn 7 during the afternoon, hurting his right hand.

He required a trip to the Clinica Mobile in the paddock, but was soon back in the saddle and out again.

Melandri showed no ill effects from the incident as he immediately leapt to third, then beat Valentino Rossi's previous benchmark by 0.025 seconds in the final minute of the day-long test, which began late due to early morning fog, but saw no repeat of Friday's rain.

Until Melandri's shock late lap, Rossi and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa had dominated the majority of the session, swapping the top position several times and spending much of the afternoon split by just 0.002 seconds.

They ultimately ended up 0.173 seconds apart in second and third behind Melandri.

After a difficult pre-season period, Pedrosa's world champion teammate Nicky Hayden showed improved form by setting the sixth fastest time today, but he remained seven-tenths of a second slower than his Repsol Honda stablemate.

Also making good progress today was Pramac d'Antin Ducati rider Alex Hofmann. The German had been hampered by a stomach upset on Friday, but had promised to show better pace once he was healthier.

Hofmann lived up to that pledge by taking fourth on the timesheets today, 0.365 seconds slower than Melandri.

Both Gresini Hondas vaulted up the order in the dying seconds of the test, as Toni Elias followed Melandri's example and jumped to fifth place, ahead of Casey Stoner.

Similar last gasp improvements from Carlos Checa (LCR Honda) and Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) pushed Rossi's teammate Colin Edwards - who had held third in the morning - down to ninth by the end. Makoto Tamada completed the top ten.

Testing resumes on Sunday morning, before the 40-minute long 'qualifying' session in the afternoon that will see the fastest rider presented with a new BMW road car.

Today's times:

Pos  Rider        Bike      Time              Laps
 1.  Melandri     Honda     1:40.383           64
 2.  Rossi        Yamaha    1:40.408 + 0.025   65
 3.  Pedrosa      Honda     1:40.581 + 0.198   76
 4.  Hofmann      Ducati    1:40.748 + 0.365   50
 5.  Elias        Honda     1:40.952 + 0.569   84
 6.  Stoner       Ducati    1:41.071 + 0.688   45
 7.  Checa        Honda     1:41.096 + 0.713   83
 8.  De Puniet    Kawasaki  1:41.151 + 0.768   83
 9.  Edwards      Yamaha    1:41.204 + 0.821   69
10.  Tamada       Yamaha    1:41.234 + 0.851   74
11.  Hayden       Honda     1:41.259 + 0.876   90
12.  Nakano       Honda     1:41.269 + 0.886   76
13.  Vermeulen    Suzuki    1:41.363 + 0.980   84
14.  Capirossi    Ducati    1:41.590 + 1.207   65
15.  Jacque       Kawasaki  1:41.777 + 1.394   62
16.  Roberts Jr   KR2I2V    1:41.783 + 1.400   82
17.  Barros       Oucati    1:41.845 + 1.462   60
18.  Guintoli     Yamaha    1:42.364 + 1.981   80
19.  Ito          Ducati    1:43.209 + 2.826   60
20.  Akiyoshi     Suzuki    1:43.610 + 3.227   70
21.  Guareschi    Ducati    1:44.143 + 3.760   54
22.  Mcwilliams   llmor X3  1:44.458 + 4.075   26
23.  Pitt         Ilmor X3  1:44.589 + 4.206   57