Stoner quick in Indy GP saturday practice

Casey Stoner ahead of the pack Saturday morning

The Australian set the fastest lap of the morning on his Repsol Honda ahead of qualifying for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, with Spies and Pedrosa again following Stoner in second and third in the timings.

In cooler temperatures and with better grip conditions than the previous day, the premier class set out to lower their times across the board, with Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) the first to dip below the 1’40” barrier at the 20 minute mark. The Texan was followed almost immediately by Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) whose time of 1’39.538 remained the fastest lap of FP3. Spies bettered his earlier time to a 1’39.670 ranking him second behind the Australian for the second time this weekend.

Ben Spies, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Yamaha Motor Racing

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was the third and last to enter into the 1’39’s, his time of 1’39.896 set on lap 18 placed him third in the outing, followed by Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) with a 1’40.301 and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) 0.025s behind Simoncelli in fifth.

Sixth quickest in FP3 with a best time of 1'40.438 was American Colin Edwards on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine, the Texan was one tenth of a second ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) in seventh and 2 tenths ahead of Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team). Rossi’s time of 1’40.698 set on his last lap gave the Italian the position of first Ducati in the ranking, his team mate Nicky Hayden finished 11th.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) ran off the track and was helped out of the gravel and returned to the track, the Spaniard was able to set a time of 1’40.916 on his last lap to place him tenth.