Stoner fastest on second night in Qatar

After most of Sunday night's session was lost to a surprise rainstorm, the penultimate winter test got underway in earnest this evening in cool and dry conditions.

Reigning champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) led the way for the first half of the night before Stoner produced a 1:57.139 on his Ducati to beat the Italian by 0.6 seconds. But as had been the case in Malaysia last month, Stoner limited himself to around six laps at a time while building up strength in his wrist following last year's recurrent injury and subsequent operation.

The main incident of the night was the accident that ended Dani Pedrosa's participation in the test. The Honda rider hurt his left knee and hand - both of which had required surgery after crashes in 2008 - when he went off at Turn 10 four hours into the session.

Colin Edwards completed the top three in an impressive performance on the Tech 3 Yamaha, ahead of Pedrosa's teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

The two Suzukis were fifth and sixth, with Chris Vermeulen slightly quicker than Loris Capirossi despite a minor accident early on.

Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio was the other rider to have a fall and was back in 16th, only beating Tech 3's James Toseland, who had himself crashed heavily in the previous test at Sepang.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) continued to struggle slightly with the transition to Bridgestone tyres in seventh place, while Sunday pace-setter Nicky Hayden fell to ninth for Ducati, behind Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time      Laps
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:57.139  37
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:57.747  51
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:57.817  41
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     1:57.879  60
 5.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:58.018  24
 6.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    1:58.264  42
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    1:58.400  63
 8.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     1:58.441  53
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati    1:58.577  54
10.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:58.619  28
11.  Randy De Puniet   Honda     1:58.936  55
12.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:59.036  56
13.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda     1:59.153  65
14.  Marco Melandri    Kawasaki  1:59.195  63
15.  Niccolo Canepa    Ducati    1:59.266  36
16.  Mika Kallio       Ducati    1:59.764  48
17.  James Toseland    Yamaha    2:00.234  51