Jorge Lorenzo heads Cal Crutchlow as Yamaha hits the front in final Qatar MotoGP practice

Reigning champion Stoner - who had been quickest for Honda in practice one and two - led most of the Friday night session as well, but was pushed back to third in a flurry of late fast times.

Lorenzo put in a 1m55.536s on his Yamaha to depose Stoner's early 1m55.674s going into the final minutes. The Spaniard was almost immediately beaten by Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow - who has looked rapid throughout practice - but on his next lap Lorenzo regained the top spot by 0.154 seconds over the satellite Yamaha man.

Stoner never managed to improve on his time from the early runs, and lost time behind Alvaro Bautista's Gresini Honda on his final flying lap.

Both Tech 3 Yamahas were near the front, as Andrea Dovizioso backed up Crutchlow's strong form in fourth.

But it was a bad night for the second works Yamaha rider Ben Spies, who crashed early on and was only 11th in the times, having completely few laps even after rejoining.

Dani Pedrosa was 0.812s off the pace in fifth on the second factory Honda.

Pramac's Hector Barbera was again quickest Ducati, beating works riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi to sixth.

Randy de Puniet returned to the top of the unofficial CRT class, despite crashing his Aspar Aprilia late on. The Frenchman limped away from the scene.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m55.302s
 2.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m55.456s  + 0.154s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Honda                 1m55.674s  + 0.372s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha         1m55.905s  + 0.603s
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m56.114s  + 0.812s
 6.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati         1m56.163s  + 0.861s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m56.402s  + 1.100s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                1m56.535s  + 1.233s
 9.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m56.751s  + 1.449s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m56.771s  + 1.469s
11.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                1m57.030s  + 1.728s
12.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati        1m57.223s  + 1.921s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m58.261s  + 2.959s
14.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW     1m58.310s  + 3.008s
15.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m58.800s  + 3.498s
16.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m59.087s  + 3.785s
17.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m59.169s  + 3.867s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia          1m59.517s  + 4.215s
19.  Ivan Silva        Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m00.035s  + 4.733s
20.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia  2m00.226s  + 4.924s
21.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia     2m00.563s  + 5.261s