Stoner also tops final practice in Qatar

The Ducati Marlboro rider shot to the top of the times after eight minutes of the 45-minute session and stayed there throughout, setting lap times up to seven tenths of a second better than the competition.

Stoner's final time of 1:56.310 was set with eleven minutes to go. Despite edging closer and closer, there was nothing reigning world champion Valentino Rossi could do to beat the Australian's time, who in the end was just shy of one tenth of a second ahead of the Fiat Yamaha rider in second spot.

While first and second spot didn't look to be challenged by anyone else, third spot was hard fought towards the end of the running. Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards looked set to end up third for most of the session, until his time was bettered in the closing stages by several other riders.

Loris Capirossi thus ended third quickest with his Rizla Suzuki, 0.288 behind Stoner, with Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo fourth and Marco Melandri in an impressive fifth with the Hayate Kawasaki.

Andrea Dovizioso took his works Repsol-backed Honda to sixth spot, beating Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki in seventh and Edwards in eighth.

LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet was ninth quickest, with James Toseland's Tech 3 Yamaha rounding up the top ten.

Injured Dani Pedrosa improved slightly in this second session by ending up 14th with his Repsol Honda, just ahead of former teammate Nicky Hayden, whose works Ducati finished the session almost three seconds behind Stoner's after his GP9 suffered mechanical gremlins that made him lose time.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:56.310
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:56.406 + 0.096
 3.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    1:56.598 + 0.288
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    1:56.649 + 0.339
 5.  Marco Melandri    Kawasaki  1:57.135 + 0.825
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     1:57.290 + 0.980
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:57.576 + 1.266
 8.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:57.714 + 1.404
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     1:57.971 + 1.661
10.  James Toseland    Yamaha    1:58.125 + 1.815
11.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     1:58.152 + 1.842
12.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:58.349 + 2.039
13.  Mika Kallio       Ducati    1:58.361 + 2.051
14.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:58.618 + 2.308
15.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati    1:59.226 + 2.916
16.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda     1:59.340 + 3.030
17.  Niccolo Canepa    Ducati    1:59.564 + 3.254
18.  Sete Gibernau     Ducati    2:00.256 + 3.946