The Ducati Marlboro star, who needs to score 15 points more than
Valentino Rossi to secure the crown on Sunday, worked with his usual precision to achieve an impressive pace, his best run averaging low 1min 38secs.
Stoner's closest rival was Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha's Makoto Tamada, who used a qualifying tyre to get within 0.039secs of the #27, while nearest title rival Rossi was just 0.17secs behind in third for Fiat Yamaha.
"We're reasonably happy with the way today went, we struggled a little bit this morning and also a little bit in the last part of this afternoon's session but apart from that we're very happy with the settings we've got for this track, which is one of the most difficult circuits of the year with a lot bumps and some very technical corners," said the Australian, who has topped practice and qualifying at the last four
MotoGP events and won the last three races. "We've nearly done race distance on the tyres, so everything is going very well, we just need to try and improve the traction for tomorrow. If we can do that then we should be able to push to improve our lap times and also our pace for the race."
Team-mate
Loris Capirossi, who must simply want a nightmare 2007 season to end, was seventh fastest.
"I'm struggling a lot here," admitted the Italian, who will ride for Suzuki next year. "During the final phase of the afternoon session I was able to find a better set-up and I did some not so bad laps, but we aren't okay yet. The engine delivery is too aggressive, so I'm having a lot of trouble, most of all in the slow parts of the track. We need to work on the engine management system and the electronics."
