Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden stole fastest time away from Marlboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner on his final lap of this afternoon’s final practice at MotoGP’s Phillip Island round.
The American snuck in a last circuit as the chequered flag went out to dip under the Australian’s time by a 0.059s margin just as it looked like Stoner’s dominance in the dry here was assured.
And it’s good news for Tech3 Yamaha’s James Toseland as the Yorkshireman is only half a second off the pace in seventh after sitting pretty in second for a good portion of the hour-long third practice.
Hayden took the early advantage, posting a 1’33.245 laptime with his first run out and then upped the pace three laps later, dropping his time by two seconds.
Toseland was straight onto the leaderboard with his first set of laps, placing third with a 1’31.659 behind the American, with Shinya Nakano just 0.5s faster.
Stoner then began his run of laps, immediately hitting the front with a 1’31.095 after just eight minutes of the session gone. Valentino Rossi could only muster third at this point and was half a second off the lead.
As Toseland moved back to third with ten minutes gone, Stoner then set a 1’30.802 and followed it with a 1’30.667 on only his sixth lap and promptly went for a nice sit down and a cup of tea.
Toseland’s team-mate Colin Edwards was still down in last place with 15 minutes gone in the session but the Texas Tornado popped straight into sixth with his first set of laps, posting a 1’31.765.
At the half hour, Stoner was still leading, but Rossi had knocked Toseland off the second place spot with a 1’31.138 compared to JT’s 31.181. Toseland’s time was set early in the session and it looked like any changes he had made were for the worse.
Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had been langushing at the bottom of the order, circulating with Dani Pedrosa and the Spaniard left it until there were only 20 minutes to go before rocketing into second place with a 1’30.702.
It looked a done deal when Stoner went back out a beat his own fastest time, posting a 1’30.617 but Hayden stole it at the death with a 1’30.558 and Alex De Anglelis robbed Toseland of sixth as he put in a 1’30.865.
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