Dani Pedrosa denies Valentino Rossi the fastest time in Jerez MotoGP second practice

Conditions had improved little from the morning's running - when all the factory teams opted not to venture out - but the reticence was not repeated as riders seized the opportunity to sample the damp track.

Rossi was one of the first to get down to a respectable time and with 30 minutes remaining it was the Italian, who suffered a disastrous opener in Qatar, who led the way with a 1m51.440s on his Ducati.

For a long while it looked like that would be enough to earn him first place, but with 10 minutes on the clock Pedrosa went out for only his third run of the session and managed to shave six tenths off the benchmark, putting Honda top.

Rossi rejoined on the second Ducati chassis but did not improve and stayed second, while team-mate Nicky Hayden completed a positive day for the Desmosedici by finishing fifth fastest.

The pair were split by Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo and the second factory Honda of Casey Stoner, both of whom finished more than one second down on Pedrosa.

Tech 3 Yamaha pair Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow claimed sixth and eighth, split by Alvaro Bautista on the satellite Gresini Honda.

Ben Spies (Yamaha) was the last of the factory riders in ninth, ahead of LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl.

Randy de Puniet finished as the fastest CRT rider in 11th, more than three seconds down on Pedrosa.

Aspar Aprilia rider de Puniet was however able to finish ahead of Karel Abraham on the satellite Pramac Ducati, which ended the session in 13th.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m50.780s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m51.440s  + 0.660s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m51.873s  + 1.093s
 4.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m52.106s  + 1.326s
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m52.254s  + 1.474s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m53.070s  + 2.290s
 7.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m53.166s  + 2.386s
 8.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m53.352s  + 2.572s
 9.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m53.409s  + 2.629s
10.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m53.409s  + 2.629s
11.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m54.155s  + 3.375s
12.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m54.370s  + 3.590s
13.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m54.378s  + 3.598s
14.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m54.581s  + 3.801s
15.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m54.707s  + 3.927s
16.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m54.748s  + 3.968s
17.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m54.915s  + 4.135s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m55.752s  + 4.972s
19.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m56.067s  + 5.287s
20.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m57.475s  + 6.695s
21.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m57.789s  + 7.009s