Melandri tops wet warm-up

After two days of temperatures above 30C, rain and cooler temperatures hit the Motegi circuit this morning, and look set to continue throughout the day.

It took until nearly halfway through the session before a rider set a representative time, Yamaha rider Colin Edwards recording a 2:05.515 only to be immediately be dethroned by Ducati's Casey Stoner.

Edwards and Stoner had their own personal duel at the top of the times, Edwards topping the times on each of his next two laps only to be bumped down to second each time by Stoner.

At this point of the session they were clearly the two fastest riders, but as the minutes wound down, the pace began to wind up.

Suzuki rider John Hopkins was the first rider to approach their times, before Randy de Puniet on his Kawasaki and Marco Melandri on his Honda also closed in, Melandri moving into second with just over two minutes remaining.

With the chequered flag in sight Melandri did a 2:01.797 to sneak inside Stoner's previous best, only for Stoner to immediately take half a second off it. Having completed those laps before the chequered flag fell, they both went again.

Stoner was unable to improve, but Melandri did a 2:00.947 to top the times, Colin Edwards having joined them in the top three after the chequered flag fell, while his teammate Valentino Rossi ended the session down in 17th.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  2:00.947
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:01.292 + 0.345
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:01.704 + 0.757
 4.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  2:02.354 + 1.407
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  2:02.380 + 1.433
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.398 + 1.451
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:02.486 + 1.539
 8.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  2:02.783 + 1.836
 9.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  2:03.335 + 2.388
10.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:03.340 + 2.393
11.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  2:03.374 + 2.427
12.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  2:03.694 + 2.747
13.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  2:04.637 + 3.690
14.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Suzuki    (B)  2:04.681 + 3.734
15.  Akira Yanagawa    Kawasaki  (B)  2:05.075 + 4.128
16.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  2:05.234 + 4.287
17.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  2:05.422 + 4.475
18.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  2:05.864 + 4.917
19.  Shinichi Ito      Ducati    (B)  2:05.986 + 5.039
20.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  2:07.556 + 6.609
21.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  2:08.805 + 7.858