Dani Pedrosa unleashed the sort of form in this morning's warm-up that netted him pole position for round four of MotoGP at Mugello yesterday.
Honda's Pedrosa achieved a one-off 1m49.750s lap to top the session by over three-tenths of a second from series leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Ducati's Casey Stoner.
Pedrosa's second-best lap was a 1m50.246, and didn't show the regularity of laptimes displayed by Lorenzo, who rattled off a sequence of low 50s. His best was a 1m50.056s.
The biggest surprise was Stoner's consistency. Despite a huge wobble at the corner which claimed Valentino Rossi in practice yesterday, and his claims that Ducati has yet to turn a corner with its rideability, he reeled off an impressive sequence of laps to suggest a podium finish is achievable today.
Stoner's best lap was 1m50.126s, just 0.07s slower than Lorenzo.
Andrea Dovizioso was fourth fastest on the second Honda, ahead of Loris Capirossi for the struggling Suzuki squad, and Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards.
Times to follow