Stoner also dominates Laguna warm-up

The Ducati Marlboro rider, who stamped his authority in every session on Friday and Saturday, yet again topped the timesheets by nearly six tenths of a second over Fiat Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi.

The championship-leading Italian snatched second-best from Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen by just over a hundredth of a second when time had already expired in the 25-minute session.

Michelin's concerns ahead of race day look to be well grounded as the top seven places in the warm-up were all filled by Bridgestone-shod riders, with the Hondas of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Nicky Hayden (Repsol) occupying the eighth and ninth spot respectively, just ahead of the Michelin-shod Fiat Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo.

Stoner's teammate Marco Melandri carried on with his decent form at the circuit by setting the fourth fastest time, followed by Sylvain Guintoli (Alice Ducati), Shinya Nakano (Honda Gresini), and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) in seventh.

The session started in misty, overcast and cool conditions, which will likely give way to hot California sunshine for the race at 2:00pm local time.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:22.085
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:22.683 + 0.598
 3.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.694 + 0.609
 4.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:22.781 + 0.696
 5.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:23.076 + 0.991
 6.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:23.134 + 1.049
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:23.317 + 1.232
 8.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:23.379 + 1.294
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:23.397 + 1.312
10.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:23.665 + 1.580
11.  Jamie Hacking     Kawasaki  (B)  1:23.799 + 1.714
12.  Ben Spies         Suzuki    (B)  1:24.097 + 2.012
13.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:24.346 + 2.261
14.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:24.614 + 2.529
15.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:24.627 + 2.542
16.  Toni Elías        Ducati    (B)  1:24.676 + 2.591
17.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:24.856 + 2.771
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:25.685 + 3.600