Stoner also tops Assen warm-up

The Ducati Marlboro rider jumped to top spot around the mid-point of the 25-minute session, when all the riders started looking for the limits on a very wet track in damp and cold conditions.

With seven minutes to go Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden set the then-fastest lap of the session with a 1:48.608, only to be beaten four minutes later by his teammate Dani Pedrosa who went 0.076 seconds faster.

But in the last minute of the session Stoner managed to be the first man to go under the one minute 48 limit with a 1:47.793, and further improved to a 1:47.583 with the time had already expired.

Meanwhile Hayden managed to take second, 0.304 seconds behind Stoner, pushing Fiat Yamaha's Velentino Rossi to third, a further 0.360 seconds back.

Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen set the fourth fastest time ahead of the other works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

Stoner's teammate Marco Melandri, who qualified last yesterday, finally managed to have a good session in the Netherlands by going seventh fastest, albeit 1.7 seconds behind the Australian.

The top ten was completed by Honda Gresini's Shinya Nakano, Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland, and LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet, who suffered a crash in the gravel during the last ten minutes of the session.

Only 16 riders took part in the warm-up after Suzuki's Loris Capirossi and Kawasaki's John Hopkins were sidelined through injuries sustained in crashes earlier this weekend.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:47.583
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:47.887 + 0.304
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:48.247 + 0.664
 4.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:48.500 + 0.917
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.504 + 0.921
 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  1:48.532 + 0.949
 7.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:49.368 + 1.785
 8.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:49.635 + 2.052
 9.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:50.131 + 2.548
10.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:50.326 + 2.743
11.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:50.429 + 2.846
12.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:50.977 + 3.394
13.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:51.031 + 3.448
14.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:51.042 + 3.459
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:51.596 + 4.013
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:54.793 + 7.210