Stoner still on top in practice three

The Marlboro Ducati rider ended the third session at Laguna Seca with a time of 1:22.365, 0.358 seconds faster than Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, who was second best in this morning's running.

Vermeulen's teammate John Hopkins was third fastest, just 33 thousandths of a second behind the Australian.

Marco Melandri continued to show his good feeling with his Honda Gresini by setting the fourth best time, beating the works Repsol Honda of Nicky Hayden by less than two hundredths of a second.

Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa finished sixth, ahead of Fiat Yamaha's Colin Edwards in seventh and Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3's Makoto Tamada in eighth.

Valentino Rossi could only set the ninth best time with the other works Yamaha. The Italian also suffered a crash that bruised his left shoulder and damaged the little finger on his left hand.

Honda LCR's Carlos Checa rounded up the top ten, followed by the three Kawasakis occupying the next three places, interestingly with wild card Roger Lee Hayden beating his teammates, respectively Anthony West in 12th and Randy de Puniet in 13th.

Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi had to be content with the 14th best time, in what looks like another difficult weekend for the Italian veteran.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:22.365
 2.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:22.723  + 0.358
 3.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:22.756  + 0.391
 4.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:22.821  + 0.456
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:22.839  + 0.474
 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:22.860  + 0.495
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:23.049  + 0.684
 8.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:23.263  + 0.898
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:23.272  + 0.907
10.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:23.282  + 0.917
11.  Roger Lee Hayden  Kawasaki  1:23.285  + 0.920
12.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:23.313  + 0.948
13.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:23.333  + 0.968
14.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:23.361  + 0.996
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:23.468  + 1.103
16.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:23.734  + 1.369
17.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:23.930  + 1.565
18.  Miguel Duhamel    Honda     1:24.626  + 2.261
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:24.928  + 2.563
20.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    1:25.219  + 2.854