Stoner completes practice clean sweep

The world championship leader, who continued to stamp his authority at the Sachsenring by ending on top of all three sessions so far, set a time of 1.22.656, 0.357 seconds faster than teammate Loris Capirossi.

Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri set the third best time, half a second behind Stoner, with Randy de Puniet's Kawasaki ending three hundredths of a second further back.

Carlos Checa set the fifth best time with his Honda LCR, followed by John Hopkins's Rizla Suzuki.

In seventh and eighth were the two Fiat Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards respectively. The two were separated by 0.033 seconds, some seven tenths behind the leading Ducati.

Next up was Chris Vermeulen on the other Suzuki, followed by reigning champion Nicky Hayden in tenth spot. His Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa could only set the 14th best time.

Kawasaki's Anthony West was 11th, Pramac d'Antin Ducati's Alex Barros 12th, while Michel Fabrizio, standing in for Toni Elias on Honda Gresini, ended the session 15th.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:22.656
 2.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:23.013  + 0.357
 3.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:23.170  + 0.514
 4.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:23.202  + 0.546
 5.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:23.220  + 0.564
 6.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:23.339  + 0.683
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:23.347  + 0.691
 8.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:23.380  + 0.724
 9.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:23.408  + 0.752
10.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:23.454  + 0.798
11.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:23.585  + 0.929
12.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:23.590  + 0.934
13.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:23.617  + 0.961
14.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:23.653  + 0.997
15.  Michel Fabrizio   Honda     1:23.701  + 1.045
16.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:23.764  + 1.108
17.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:23.806  + 1.150
18.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:23.935  + 1.279
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:25.097  + 2.441