Stoner tops final practice

Another cold and damp morning greeted the riders, Stoner setting the early pace, quickly getting down to a 1:39.980 after less than ten minutes of the session had been completed. However, it took until after halfway through the session for that time to be lowered when Marco Melandri did a 1:39.006 33 minutes in.

From there the times tumbled, Melandri taking three seconds off his own mark over the next two laps, before Dani Pedrosa and then Stoner joined in. Stoner took control at the top of the times with 20 minutes remaining, the fastest time now down to a 1:32.574.

However, with eight minutes remaining he was knocked off top spot by Motegi winner and teammate Loris Capirossi, who lowered his own mark on the next lap. Remarkably, Stoner crossed the line just seconds later and set the exact same time to the thousandth of a second!

On his next lap Stoner retook the top spot, only to see Kawasaki rider Randy de Puniet take fastest time away again on his next lap. Stoner would not be denied however, lowering the fastest time two times in the final three minutes to finish each practice session on top at home.

However, Stoner's day was not perfect, crashing and going over the handlebars at Siberia halfway through the session.

De Puniet was not far behind however, with a lap in the final minute of the session leaving him just 0.237 seconds off the top spot. Next was Honda's Dani Pedrosa, six tenths behind Stoner, with a pair of Ducatis in the shape of Alex Barros for Pramac D'Antin and Loris Capirossi for the factory a further tenth back.

Sixth fastest was Yamaha's Valentino Rossi, 0.866 seconds behind the Australian. He was the last rider to finish the session within a second of Stoner's time. Suzuki's John Hopkins, Kawasaki's Anthony West and Rossi's teammate Colin Edwards completed the top ten.

2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden ended the session in 12th, but must have been disappointed to be two seconds off the leader's pace. Two tenths behind him in 13th was the other Aussie, Chris Vermeulen, who also struggled to find pace.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:31.451
 2.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:31.688  + 0.237
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:32.056  + 0.605
 4.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:32.168  + 0.717
 5.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:32.176  + 0.725
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:32.317  + 0.866
 7.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  1:32.523  + 1.072
 8.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:32.817  + 1.366
 9.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:32.947  + 1.496
10.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:33.095  + 1.644
11.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  1:33.276  + 1.825
12.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:33.498  + 2.047
13.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:33.730  + 2.279
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:33.774  + 2.323
15.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:33.939  + 2.488
16.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:34.274  + 2.823
17.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    (B)  1:34.283  + 2.832
18.  Kurtis Roberts    KR212V    (M)  1:34.403  + 2.952
19.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  1:34.563  + 3.112