Stoner dominates warm-up

In mostly dry conditions, Stoner found far more grip than anyone else and was already over a second clear before his final lap of 1m30.942s put him 1.890s ahead of nearest rival Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda).

Ducati rider Stoner will start on pole at home for a third consecutive year, and is chasing a fourth straight victory in Australia.

Stoner aside, Gresini was at the forefront throughout the 20-minute session, with Marco Melandri looking set to join Simoncelli among the leaders had he not spent much of the final minutes trying to extract himself from the marsh-like conditions of the run-off at the first corner.

Nicky Hayden managed to get back off the wet grass without too much difficulty when he went off on his Ducati, but Ben Spies had a gentle fall when his Tech 3 Yamaha slid off at the hairpin and lost grip in the gravel.

Valentino Rossi was third for Yamaha, while his world champion team-mate Jorge Lorenzo did not make a serious effort at a lap time and was the last of the 15 riders - both Dani Pedrosa and Loris Capirossi having now pulled out of the race due to injuries.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m30.942s
 2.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m32.832s  + 1.890s
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m32.913s  + 1.971s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m33.023s  + 2.081s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m33.106s  + 2.164s
 6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m33.266s  + 2.324s
 7.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m33.393s  + 2.451s
 8.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m33.599s  + 2.657s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m33.636s  + 2.694s
10.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m33.709s  + 2.767s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m34.834s  + 3.892s
12.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m34.874s  + 3.932s
13.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m35.191s  + 4.249s
14.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m35.306s  + 4.364s
15.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m52.957s  + 22.015s