Stoner fastest in warm-up

Championship leader Casey Stoner was fastest in the morning warm-up for the Catalan Grand Prix

The Ducati rider had been full of confidence after qualifying fourth yesterday, believing his race set-up gave him an excellent chance of taking the victory this afternoon.

His best time of 1:42.908 was 0.087 seconds quicker than Randy de Puniet, who continued to show excellent form for Kawasaki. The Frenchman is riding with a severely swollen knee after crashing at Mugello a week ago, but has qualified a career-best second and been in the top two in every session since Saturday morning.

Suzuki's John Hopkins was third quickest, ahead of Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi, who will start 17th after a disastrous qualifying session. The Italian veteran had to run back to the pits for his spare bike after mechanical problems on his usual machine, then was badly baulked on his remaining laps.

World champion Nicky Hayden took a promising fifth, and was the fastest rider on Michelins, with his Repsol Honda teammate and local favourite Dani Pedrosa seventh behind Chris Vermeulen.

Polesitter Valentino Rossi could only manage ninth position, 1.018 seconds behind his title rival Stoner.

The injured Olivier Jacque, who was taken to hospital for checks after a practice crash yesterday, did not participate in the warm-up and is now considered highly unlikely to start the race.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:42.908
 2.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:42.995  + 0.087
 3.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:43.040  + 0.132
 4.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:43.095  + 0.187
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:43.447  + 0.539
 6.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:43.529  + 0.621
 7.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:43.604  + 0.696
 8.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:43.786  + 0.878
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:43.926  + 1.018
10.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:43.952  + 1.044
11.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:44.053  + 1.145
12.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:44.262  + 1.354
13.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:44.284  + 1.376
14.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:44.293  + 1.385
15.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:44.470  + 1.562
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:44.693  + 1.785
17.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:44.709  + 1.801
18.  Kenny Roberts Jr  KR        1:45.924  + 3.016
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:46.774  + 3.866