Stoner crashes but returns to go fastest in final MotoGP practice at Le Mans

The Australian lost the front of his Honda through the second part of the Turn 10 chicane. He was unhurt and able to return to the pits for his second bike, on which he then proceeded to pull clear in the final five minutes.

As was the case in second practice, the reigning champion ended as the only man to dip under the 1m34s mark, giving him an advantage of almost half a second at the head of the field.

Until his late charge, the session had been incredibly close with the top eight riders covered by less than six tenths of a second.

Cal Crutchlow eventually claimed second fastest, fractions ahead of his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, Gresini's Alvaro Bautista, Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Ducati's Valentino Rossi all ended within 0.4s of the Tech 3 duo.

Hector Barbera's satellite Pramac Ducati beat Nicky Hayden's works counterpart to eighth, while Karel Abraham on the Cardion Ducati beat Yamaha's Ben Spies and LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl to 10th.

Aspar's Randy de Puniet occupied his seemingly customary position as top CRT rider in 13th.

The cold conditions which contributed to Stoner's fall also caught out Ioda's Danilo Petrucci and Speed Master's Mattia Pasini early on. Pasini was able to walk away from a heavy high side, but did not return to the track.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time             Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m33.945s
 2.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.425s   + 0.480s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.429s   + 0.484s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m34.456s   + 0.511s
 5.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m34.471s   + 0.526s
 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda                     1m34.636s   + 0.691s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m34.757s   + 0.812s
 8.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m35.081s   + 1.136s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m35.261s   + 1.316s
10.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m35.328s   + 1.383s
11.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m35.423s   + 1.478s
12.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m35.468s   + 1.523s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m36.389s   + 2.444s
14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m36.666s   + 2.721s
15.  Yonni Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m37.138s   + 3.193s
16.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m37.666s   + 3.721s
17.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.692s   + 3.747s
18.  James Ellison     Forward Suter-BMW         1m37.940s   + 3.995s
19.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m38.344s   + 4.399s
20.  Chris Vermeulen   Forward Suter-BMW         1m39.507s   + 5.562s
21.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m46.663s  + 12.718s