Rossi tops second session in Spain
Valentino Rossi snatched the top spot with his final lap of the Friday afternoon practice session in Barcelona - beating John Hopkins and Dani Pedrosa by less than a tenth of a second
But Pedrosa's morning time remained the best of the day - 0.3 seconds faster than Rossi's afternoon effort - and the Spaniard was also fastest for the majority of second practice despite falling from his bike early on.
Pedrosa lapped in 1:43.391 shortly afternoon the session got underway, but then suffered a low-side at Turn 3 and parted company with his bike as it slid into the gravel.
He escaped uninjured and was able to rejoin later in the hour and complete another 17 laps. His early lap time stood as the fastest of the afternoon until Rossi beat it by 0.072 seconds at the very end of the session, with Hopkins grabbing second at the same time.
Toni Elias continued his promising morning practice form to go fourth quickest, 0.2 seconds off the pace, ahead of championship leader Casey Stoner, whose Ducati teammate Loris Capirossi escaped a trip through the gravel with no ill-effects, but could only manage 14th on the timesheets.
Chris Vermeulen, Marco Melandri, Alex Barros, Colin Edwards and Shinya Nakano filled the remaining top ten positions.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:43.313 2. John Hopkins Suzuki 1:43.389 + 0.076 3. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1:43.391 + 0.078 4. Toni Elias Honda 1:43.592 + 0.279 5. Casey Stoner Ducati 1:43.683 + 0.370 6. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1:43.713 + 0.400 7. Marco Melandri Honda 1:43.811 + 0.498 8. Alex Barros Ducati 1:43.857 + 0.544 9. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1:43.865 + 0.552 10. Shinya Nakano Honda 1:44.003 + 0.690 11. Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1:44.141 + 0.828 12. Nicky Hayden Honda 1:44.267 + 0.954 13. Carlos Checa Honda 1:44.303 + 0.990 14. Loris Capirossi Ducati 1:44.426 + 1.113 15. Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 1:44.466 + 1.153 16. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha 1:44.665 + 1.352 17. Makoto Tamada Yamaha 1:44.743 + 1.430 18. Alex Hofmann Ducati 1:44.880 + 1.567 19. Kenny Roberts Jr KR 1:45.284 + 1.971 20. Kurtis Roberts KR 1:46.153 + 2.840
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