Stoner tops final practice at Barcelona

The Ducati Marlboro rider set the two fastest time of the morning in consecutive laps about 17 minutes before the end of the one-hour session, but crucially just moments before rain started hitting the Spanish track.

The Australian's quickest lap was 1:43.013, eight hundredths of a second faster than his previous lap, and 0.112 seconds quicker than Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden, who set his best time a full half hour earlier than Stoner.

Hayden's time was 0.118 seconds faster than fellow American Colin Edwards's. The latter's Tech 3 Yamaha was one tenth quicker than the factory Fiat Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.

Chris Vermeulen was fifth fastest with his Rizla Suzuki, followed by James Toseland's Tech 3 Yamaha and Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda.

Dani Pedrosa was eighth with his works Honda, ahead of the JiR Honda of Andrea Dovizioso and the Suzuki of Loris Capirossi.

Kawasaki's John Hopkins, who suffered a back contusion after a crash in yesterday's practice, was deemed fit to run today and set the eleventh quickest time.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:43.013
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:43.125 + 0.112
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:43.243 + 0.230
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:43.253 + 0.240
 5.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:43.261 + 0.248
 6.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:43.294 + 0.281
 7.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:43.356 + 0.343
 8.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  1:43.375 + 0.362
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:43.708 + 0.695
10.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:43.947 + 0.934
11.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:44.031 + 1.018
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:44.094 + 1.081
13.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:44.126 + 1.113
14.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:44.558 + 1.545
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:44.591 + 1.578
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:44.962 + 1.949
17.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:45.300 + 2.287