Stoner tops final practice at Valencia

Casey Stoner returned to the top of the timesheets as dry weather presented itself at Valencia this morning, comfortably outpacing Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa with his late effort of 1:32.619. Randy de Puniet placed his Pramac machine in third, finishing as the fastest Ducati runner ahead of Andrea Dovizioso.

With weather conditions improving, times tumbled at the Spanish circuit over the course of the session. Stoner's quickest attempt was almost 13 seconds below the benchmark he set yesterday, leaving his rivals with work to do ahead of qualifying. Ben Spies was next up behind the top four, with Italy's Valentino Rossi in close company.

Álvaro Bautista and Nicky Hayden did enough to occupy seventh and eighth respectively as the chequered flag came out, the pair ultimately ending up just ahead of final top ten runners Héctor Barberá and Gresini's Hiroshi Aoyama.