Casey Stoner fastest in second Indianapolis Grand Prix practice session

Stoner had trailed morning pace-setter Ben Spies for most of the session, but flew to the top of the timesheets with a 1m40.828s lap with four minutes to go, and then moved further ahead by lapping in 1m40.724s on his final flying effort.

Stoner somehow avoided a late crash by taking the whole weight of his bike on his right knee after losing the front end, just a lap after almost colliding with a gopher that ran across the track.

Spies was 0.194s slower, but retained second place ahead of Dani Pedrosa's Honda and his own Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

As well as the order at the sharp end having a much more familiar look about it than during the morning session, the times were much quicker too - almost three seconds better, in fact - as more rubber was laid down on the new track surface.

Andrea Dovizioso made it all three works Hondas in the top five with Colin Edwards next up on his Tech 3 Yamaha.

Gresini Honda rider Marco Simoncelli, Ducati's Nicky Hayden and Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista were next up while Pramac Ducati rider Randy de Puniet was impressively 10th fastest and a spot ahead of Valentino Rossi's works machine.

Rossi twice went off the circuit after running on at corners, but stayed on the bike each time and avoided the barriers.

Pos  Rider              Team/Bike          Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner       Honda              1m40.724s 
 2.  Ben Spies          Yamaha             1m40.918s  + 0.194s   
 3.  Dani Pedrosa       Honda              1m41.205s  + 0.481s        
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha             1m41.461s  + 0.737s 
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso   Honda              1m41.536s  + 0.812s
 6.  Colin Edwards      Tech 3 Yamaha      1m41.699s  + 0.975s 
 7.  Marco Simoncelli   Gresini Honda      1m41.742s  + 1.018s 
 8.  Nicky Hayden       Ducati             1m41.789s  + 1.065s 
 9.  Alvaro Bautista    Suzuki             1m42.231s  + 1.507s 
10.  Randy de Puniet    Pramac Ducati      1m42.339s  + 1.615s 
11.  Valentino Rossi    Ducati             1m42.405s  + 1.681s 
12.  Hiroshi Aoyama     Gresini Honda      1m42.673s  + 1.949s 
13.  Hector Barbera     Aspar Ducati       1m42.920s  + 2.196s
14.  Loris Capirossi    Pramac Ducati      1m43.034s  + 2.310s
15.  Cal Crutchlow      Tech 3 Yamaha      1m43.085s  + 2.361s
16.  Toni Elias         LCR Honda          1m43.230s  + 2.506s 
17.  Karel Abraham      Cardion AB Ducati  1m43.528s  + 2.804s