FIM MotoGP World Championship Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana September 13, 2008 Free Practice Three/Best Combined Practice Results: 1. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:43.708 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:43.780 3. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:43.826 4. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:43.893 5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:44.171 6. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:44.210 7. Ben SPIES (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:44.211 8. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:44.459 9. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:44.499 10. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:45.087 11. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:45.147 12. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:45.158 13. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:45.172 14. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:45.318 15. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:45.466 16. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:45.579 17. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:45.706 18. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:45.894 19. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:46.945 More, from a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Honda: Andrea Dovizioso still competitive with fifth in Indianapolis The last round of free practice for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in the MotoGP class has confirmed Andrea Dovizioso competitive even on a dry track. Despite forecasts that announced intense rain, the sky above the circuit remained dry. The track, wet from rain overnight, slowly dried and allowed the JiR Team Scot rider to finally get out on a track with dry weather tyres. During the first half of the session with grooved tyres and a wet track, Dovi was up at the front and continued to occupy the top positions until the end of the session. In an hour, which saw the first nine riders covered by a single second, the fifth time by Andrea is a good sign for the qualifying session, which will be held later this afternoon and is scheduled to finish at 15.00hrs local time. Gianluca Montiron – Director JiR Team Scot “The performance today confirms the good form and competitiveness of Andrea who has behaved well during the entire session, with both wet and dry track. This shows we can make a good race in any conditions, but we will see the final evidence in qualifying this afternoon. It will be important, as always, to try to start in the first positions in anticipation of a possible race in the rain.” Andrea Dovizioso – Pilot JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V 5th-best time: 1’44 “171 “I am very pleased with the outcome of today, the track is quite strange and the grip conditions have changed compared to yesterday. The new asphalt, slippery with rain, is good in ideal conditions and offers a good level of grip, while the old, which is more rough, has joints in it on the racing line that are annoying. Even the metal kerbs which for us are completely new offer good grip. The slow corners are still a little dull though. We have reached a good condition when it comes to suspension settings and we have tried different solutions with tyres with some good results and in qualifying we will try to make the most of the time available to gather additional information in anticipation of the race. A prediction on the possible evolution of the race is not possible! We await the end of qualifying and then we will have to see how the weather will be tomorrow.” Gianni Berti – Technical Coordinator JiR Team Scot “Compared to a rain-hit day yesterday, we started from zero to configure the bike for dry conditions. The team did a great job, because it is demanding to be able to start immediately in front of everyone and keep constantly in the top positions. For Andrea, he has shown skill in being able to interpret the new track in both wet and dry conditions. We were able to exploit the information gathered yesterday to prepare for things despite the change in the weather. This afternoon we will hope to continue in this way and aim for a good qualification.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER AND MELANDRI CONFIDENT AHEAD OF INDY QUALIFYING Adverse weather conditions finally relented over Indianapolis today, rewarding the thousands of fans who have made the trip to the state capital of Indiana despite the tricky forecasts and the MotoGP riders, who were finally able to get some dry track time around the legendary circuit following yesterday’s washout. The track surface was still damp when this morning’s final free practice got underway but it did dry as the session progressed, giving Casey Stoner the opportunity to make some set-up adjustments and set the quickest pace before a technical problem forced him to park his bike and miss out on the final ten minutes of the session. Marco Melandri was barely able to make use of the start of the session although he did improve significantly towards the end, leaving him hopeful of further progress if the conditions remain dry for qualifying this afternoon. CASEY STONER (Ducati MotoGP Team) 17th: 1’45.706 “It hasn’t rained yet today but the track wasn’t completely dry and the new asphalt still doesn’t have enough rubber on it to offer good feeling. Anyway, at least we were able to work on the bike and find out what works at this track. Things were going well until we decided to try out a small change to the second bike and make a comparison between the two settings. Unfortunately it developed a problem and with only ten minutes remaining I didn’t have chance to get back and take the other machine out. So far it hasn’t been an exceptional weekend for us but the situation isn’t all bad and we still have another session left to prepare for tomorrow. The big question mark is still the weather because we have no idea what to expect for the race.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati MotoGP Team) 15th: 1’45.466 “I’m a little disappointed with this morning’s session because we lost too much time at the start, which set our programme back and I only managed to improve at the end. Hopefully the weather holds out for the afternoon so that we can take some more steps forward because there is definitely plenty of room for improvement.”