With the sun shining in Barcelona, the track conditions at Montmelò started to improve and dry out and lap times tumbled, but it was Casey Stoner who again set the bar for the rest of the field. The Repsol Honda rider was his usual super fast straight out of the garage with a best time of 1.42.691 on his fourth lap, but Jorge Lorenzo upped his pace towards the end of the practice and was able to get much closer to Stoner, finishing just 0.122s adrift.

The third spot ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session went to Marco Simoncelli who was 0.439s from the top of the chart, while Ben Spies was fourth followed by Andrea Dovizioso.

Nicky Hayden was sixth and the last rider to be within a second from Stoner. The rest of the grid will still have to play catch up. Cal Crutchlow was seventh followed by Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi and Alvaro Bautista closed out the top ten.

Despite the improved conditions, Loris Capirossi and Valentino Rossi took a tumble at turn 5 in different incidents, both riders walked away seemingly unhurt, but Rossi’s left shoulder took another beating, but avoided further damage by his deploying Dainese D-Air. Turn 5 was the same corner that saw Colin Edwards crash out yesterday afternoon and left him with broken collarbone and unable to take part in tomorrow’s race and leaving the grid with just 15 riders.

MotoGP Catalunya FP3 results:

01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 1’42.691
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.122
03- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 0.439
04- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.787
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.937
06- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.978
07- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.192
08- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.673
09- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.766
10- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.813
11- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.819
12- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.850
13- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.951
14- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 2.071
15- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 2.272

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