The final day of the IRTA MotoGP test at Jerez was washed out and blown away, which makes a bit of a mockery of things, but the fact remains that Casey Stoner was quickest on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati ahead of Valentino Rossi on a...Bridgestone-shod Yamaha.

Nicky Hayden was the best of the rest on his Michelin-shod Repsol Honda, but it all looks a bit ominous for the start of the season. The Hondas have been up and down all winter and Rossi has been a bit inconsistent too, while Stoner has blown away everyone everywhere.

According to 2006 champion Hayden (OK, actually more reading between the lines) Honda is struggling with the engine more than the chassis and Hayden's best times were done with the old engine rather than the new one with pneumatic valves.

Here are the press release quotes:

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 1'50.580 Laps: 17
“Today the conditions made things quite difficult so we didn't have quite the day we hoped for! Anyway I'm quite happy with our performance in this weather; it's the first time for me with the Bridgestones in the wet and, although we can see that we have some more work to do with the set-up of our bike, we were not so slow. Of course we know we can be faster with more time, and so it would be good to have another chance in the rain tomorrow. The main problem is that we are lacking a bit of front grip and the balance of the bike is not at 100%, so I can't enter the corner exactly how I want, but we will improve this. The first test in the dry with Bridgestone was quite hard but now, after three tests, things are good, so of course it's going to be the same in the wet. At the end we came second today after just one morning, so I think we can be quite content with our day's work.”

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 50.785s – on lap 15 of 16.
“It was fun, because it's a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could've been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would've tried just as hard! We're all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal. I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down. Nonetheless the bike was working pretty good in the rain. I'm not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That's something I've definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I'm happy we did okay in those conditions. Full rain's normally not too bad for me and the dry's not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we've worked a lot on that. It's been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn't have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable. We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working good and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'49.263
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'50.580
3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'50.785

4. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'50.799

5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'51.312

6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'51.594

7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'51.894

8. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'51.979

9. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'52.058

10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'52.238

11. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'52.463
12. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'52.755
13. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'52.779
14. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'52.826
15. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1'53.283
16. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'53.292
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'54.694

18. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1'57.453

19. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'57.698