De Puniet fastest in second practice

His teammate Anthony West set the early pace, but as the session hit the halfway mark, de Puniet started setting fast times, setting a time of 2:02.917 with just over ten minutes remaining in the session.

As usual, Casey Stoner was fast on his Ducati, fast throughout the second half of the session, just missing out on beating de Puniet's time by eleven thousandths of a second with a time after the chequered flag had fallen.

Third fastest was Marco Melandri on his Gresini Honda, just ahead of fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, West, Melandri's teammate Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli who went over six seconds faster than in the first session.

Suzuki teammates Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins were next, with Nicky Hayden completing the top ten just a few thousandths of a second faster than Carlos Checa and Alex Barros.

Both Fiat Yamaha riders failed to set a quick time in the session, Colin Edwards 2.2 seconds off the pace in 14th while Valentino Rossi was three tenths slower in 16th, just behind wildcard Nobuatsu Aoki and just ahead of Pramac's Chaz Davies.

After a heavy fall in the morning session, Konica Minolta's Shinya Nakano had another fall as the afternoon session finished.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.917
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:02.928 + 0.011
 3.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  2:03.661 + 0.744
 4.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  2:03.767 + 0.850
 5.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:03.825 + 0.908
 6.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  2:04.031 + 1.114
 7.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  2:04.094 + 1.177
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:04.455 + 1.538
 9.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  2:04.494 + 1.577
10.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  2:04.752 + 1.835
11.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  2:04.770 + 1.853
12.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  2:04.774 + 1.857
13.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  2:04.940 + 2.023
14.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:05.162 + 2.245
15.  Nobuatsu Aoki     Suzuki    (B)  2:05.234 + 2.317
16.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  2:05.421 + 2.504
17.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    (B)  2:05.897 + 2.980
18.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  2:05.939 + 3.022
19.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  2:06.429 + 3.512
20.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  2:07.033 + 4.116