Pedrosa leads second practice at Estoril

With the Estoril track having completely dried up from the morning rain, riders were finally able to get some useful preparations done.

Pedrosa was quick early on in the session and, despite seeing first Colin Edwards and then Valentino Rossi move to the top of the timesheets near the end, the winner of the Spanish Grand Prix was able to respond in the closing minutes to set a best lap of 1:38.507.

The Spaniard nearly missed his chance, though, when he was accidentally blocked by Alex de Angelis during a quick run and had to abort that lap.

Rossi ended up second fastest, just four hundredths of a second behind Pedrosa, while Edwards will have been very encouraged by his showing on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

Pedrosa's teammate Nicky Hayden was fourth fastest, having run off the track at one point after missing a braking point. The American finished ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso on the timesheets.

MotoGP champion Casey Stoner had a frustrating afternoon, having been comfortably quickest in the morning session.

The Ducati Marlboro rider fell off in the opening minutes of the session and, having resumed after 20 minutes, he then managed to save a huge tank slapper.

Stoner then spent a lot of time in the pits as mechanics worked on his bike and, despite completing 19 laps, he could manage no better than seventh.

The only other major incident was when Toni Elias appeared to suffer a spectacular engine failure on the start-finish straight on his Alice Team Ducati.

Pos  Rider               Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Dani Pedrosa        Repsol Honda Team         1:38.507            26
 2.  Valentino Rossi     Fiat Yamaha Team          1:38.547  + 0.040   26
 3.  Colin Edwards       Tech 3 Yamaha             1:38.632  + 0.125   28
 4.  Nicky Hayden        Repsol Honda Team         1:38.688  + 0.181   28
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo       Fiat Yamaha Team          1:38.868  + 0.361   24
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso    JiR Team Scot MotoGP      1:39.171  + 0.664   27
 7.  Casey Stoner        Ducati Marlboro Team      1:39.202  + 0.695   19
 8.  Shinya Nakano       San Carlo Honda Gresini   1:39.309  + 0.802   26
 9.  Randy De Puniet     LCR Honda MotoGP          1:39.332  + 0.825   25
10.  John Hopkins        Kawasaki Racing Team      1:39.474  + 0.967   23
11.  Loris Capirossi     Rizla Suzuki MotoGP       1:39.591  + 1.084   20
12.  Chris Vermeulen     Rizla Suzuki MotoGP       1:39.946  + 1.439   26
13.  James Toseland      Tech 3 Yamaha             1:40.055  + 1.548   21
14.  Alex De Angelis     San Carlo Honda Gresini   1:41.033  + 2.526   22
15.  Marco Melandri      Ducati Marlboro Team      1:41.112  + 2.605   21
16.  Anthony West        Kawasaki Racing Team      1:41.572  + 3.065   25
17.  Sylvain Guintoli    Alice Team                1:41.875  + 3.368   21
18.  Toni Elias          Alice Team                1:43.262  + 4.755   11