Aragon MotoGP: Ben Spies tops second practice

Like many of the other frontrunners, the American had elected to sit out the first session when the track was neither fully wet nor fully dry.

He was first out at the start of the second however, when all uncertainty about conditions had been removed by a brief but heavy shower.

Times fell consistently as the session developed, and in the final minutes top spot almost exclusively belonged to Yamaha's two works riders.

Lorenzo looked to have sealed it with the session's first sub 2m01s lap, but moments later Spies shaved a further five tenths of the Spaniard's benchmark to go top.

There was still time for Honda's Dani Pedrosa to sneak into second, just six hundredths of a second shy of Spies.

Lorenzo stayed third ahead of Ducati's Nicky Hayden, the last rider to get within one second of the ultimate pace.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso were fifth and seventh, sandwiching the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl.

Valentino Rossi on the second Ducati locked out ninth, ahead of satellite riders Karel Abraham (Cardion Ducati), Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda) and the second works Honda of Jonathan Rea.


Pos  Driver               Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Ben Spies            Yamaha                2m00.219s          
 2.  Dani Pedrosa         Honda                 2m00.285s  + 0.066s 
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo        Yamaha                2m00.746s  + 0.527s
 4.  Nicky Hayden         Ducati                2m00.996s  + 0.777s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.379s  + 1.160s
 6.  Stefan Bradl         LCR Honda             2m01.626s  + 1.407s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow        Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.665s  + 1.446s
 8.  Valentino Rossi      Ducati                2m02.412s  + 2.193s
 9.  Karel Abraham        Cardion Ducati        2m02.632s  + 2.413s
10.  Alvaro Bautista      Gresini Honda         2m03.263s  + 3.044s
11.  Jonathan Rea         Honda                 2m04.046s  + 3.827s
12.  Randy de Puniet      Aspar Aprilia         2m04.353s  + 4.134s
13.  Aleix Espargaro      Aspar Aprilia         2m04.423s  + 4.204s
14.  James Ellison        Paul Bird Aprilia     2m04.542s  + 4.323s
15.  Mattia Pasini        Speed Master Aprilia  2m04.722s  + 4.503s
16.  Yonny Hernandez      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m04.858s  + 4.639s
17.  Michele Pirro        Gresini FTR-Honda     2m06.030s  + 5.811s
18.  Hector Barbera       Pramac Ducati         2m06.182s  + 5.963s
19.  Danilo Petrucci      Ioda Suter-BMW        2m06.368s  + 6.149s
20.  David Salom          Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m06.593s  + 6.374s
21.  Colin Edwards        Forward Suter-BMW     2m06.677s  + 6.458s