Italian Marco Simoncelli has upstaged the MotoGP stars to end the Sepang test as the fastest man.
The second-year rider took his San Carlo Gresini Honda to a fastest time of 2:00.757s – enough to see the 24-year-old edge out former World Champions Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.
Stoner had a minor fall in the morning, but was pleased with his day regardless.
“Today was definitely the best day, despite the crash,” he said.
“In general we made some nice steps forwards, alternating between the different chassis, trying to get a good feeling for them.
“We managed to make the bike work a lot better with used tyres and a different traction control system that catches the tyres a little quicker when they start to spin – which assisted with our corner speed.”
The Australian’s team-mates Andrea Dovisioso and Dani Pedrosa ended a strong three days for the Repsol Honda team with the fourth and sixth fastest times respectively, split by Texan Ben Spies on the second Yamaha.
Nicky Hayden was the fastest of the six Ducatis in eighth – some 0.8s slower than Simoncelli.
See below for the fastest times from Day 3 in Sepang.
| 1 | Marco Simoncelli | Honda | 2:00.757 |
| 2 | Casey Stoner | Honda | 2:00.811 |
| 3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 2:00.845 |
| 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Honda | 2:00.945 |
| 5 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | 2:01.002 |
| 6 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 2:01.241 |
| 7 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | 2:01.353 |
| 8 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | 2:01.534 |
| 9 | Colin Edwards | Yamaha | 2:01.651 |
| 10 | Valentino Rossi | Ducati | 2:01.842 |
| 11 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 2:02.030 |
| 12 | Loris Capirossi | Ducati | 2:02.057 |
| 13 | Randy De Puniet | Ducati | 2:02.159 |
| 14 | Karel Abraham | Ducati | 2:02.645 |
| 15 | Cal Crutchlow | Yamaha | 2:02.717 |
| 16 | Toni Elias | Honda | 2:02.916 |
| 17 | Kousuke Akiyoshi | Honda | 2:03.452 |
| 18 | Noburu Aoki | Suzuki | 2:04.700 |
