Stoner defends lead in FP3

Stoner’s FP1 practice time of 2’03.748 remained the fastest time of the of the AirAsia British Grand Prix race weekend until Simoncelli surpassed it in the last nine minutes of FP3, only to have the Australian retaliate with a lap time of 2’03.487, putting Stoner at the head of the field once again.

Ben Spies has his sights on the podium, and his time of 2’03.942 reflected that, putting the American into third in the session. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) tried to improve his position but his time of 2’04.099, though an improvement of 0.657s from his previous day’s time, was not enough to put him in the first three.

Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) saw as high as second in the timings, topping his thus far impressive weekend with a lap of 2’04.314, placing him fifth. Team mate Colin Edwards faired far better in today’s practice after retiring early for both sessions yesterday, going almost four seconds faster today, putting him 10th.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) was 0.058s behind Crutchlow, while seventh in practice Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) was not able to improve on his FP1 time of 2’04.778, trailing it by 0.472s.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) moved his placement in practice times up to eighth, and Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) finished FP3 with a significantly better time, moving nearly two seconds faster than the day before.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) improved his weekend time by just nearly half a second though finished 14th in the session.

Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) crashed early in the practice but was able to rejoin the session to put in a time of 2’05.872 to place him twelfth.