Stoner still untouchable in final session

Casey Stoner continued his absolute dominance of his home MotoGP weekend with another astonishing performance in final practice at Phillip Island.

The Honda rider again shrugged off the ankle injury that has limited his recent form and produced a string of ever-faster laps at the head of the field.

Stoner eventually reached a 1m29.665s, putting him a second clear of nearest rival Jorge Lorenzo.

With Stoner looking utterly out of reach even before qualifying, Lorenzo’s focus will be on championship rival Dani Pedrosa.

In practice three at least, the Yamaha man was able to beat his Honda adversary by three tenths of a second as they lined up second and third.

The Tech 3 Yamaha duo completed the top five. Cal Crutchlow was ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who had a minor fall.

Alvaro Bautista shrugged off a messy brush with a seagull to go sixth quickest.

Randy de Puniet took Aspar’s CRT Aprilia to a giantkilling seventh. Stefan Bradl, Valentino Rossi and Karel Abraham were next up.

The session’s other incident was a crash for Hector Barbera. The Pramac rider was 13th at the finish.

Local rider Kris McLaren, standing in for the injured Yonny Hernandez at Avintia, looks like he will be hard-pressed to qualify as he lapped 6.5s off the pace and 1.8s down on team-mate Ivan Silva.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
  1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                 1m29.665s
  2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m30.684s  + 1.019s
  3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m30.981s  + 1.316s
  4.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m31.197s  + 1.532s
  5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha         1m31.438s  + 1.773s
  6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m31.635s  + 1.970s
  7.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m31.651s  + 1.986s
  8.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m31.821s  + 2.156s
  9.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                1m32.058s  + 2.393s
 10.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati        1m32.081s  + 2.416s
 11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m32.141s  + 2.476s
 12.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m32.366s  + 2.701s
 13.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati         1m33.185s  + 3.520s
 14.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Suter-BMW        1m33.586s  + 3.921s
 15.  Roberto Rolfo     Speed Master Aprilia  1m33.911s  + 4.246s
 16.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia     1m34.108s  + 4.443s
 17.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m34.183s  + 4.518s
 18.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW     1m34.303s  + 4.638s
 19.  Ivan Silva        Avintia BQR-Kawasaki  1m34.407s  + 4.742s
 20.  Kris McLaren      Avintia BQR-Kawasaki  1m36.251s  + 6.586s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/motorcycles/motogp/stoner-still-untouchable-in-final-session

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