Stoner tops practice 3 at Misano

Casey Stoner at Misano

In slightly cooler weather than the day before, the premier class set out in the final practice outing before afternoon qualifying, with Casey Stoner leading the way with a best time of 1’33.567, the fastest lap of the weekend. The Australian improved his time by close to a second with his quickest time set on his fourth lap, and was 0.099s ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa, who bettered his time by over half a second from the previous day.

The Yamaha Factory Racing team had smaller improvements, with Lorenzo bettering his previous time by less than a tenth, posting a time of 1’33.890 on lap eight of 22, while Ben Spies improved by slightly less than two tenths, placing him fourth in the field.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) made big strides jumping from tenth to fifth in the field, posting a time of 1’34.321, over one second faster than his best lap of Friday. The American was 0.099s ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) who improved by five tenths, while Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) stepped it up two tenths with a time of 1’34.60 to place him seventh.

Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar ) was the first Ducati in the times and eighth fastest of the field, while Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) moved from 15th to ninth in the times, ahead of Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) in tenth, whose small morning improvements to his Desmosedici GP11.1 moved him up from 13th in the timings.

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