Gresini Honda duo fastest in testing

Although the rain that marred the first day of running remained until late morning, it did eventually dry up by the afternoon.

However, blustery conditions meant that it was still a challenge to find the consistency that many teams were chasing.

Even so, Melandri completed a total of 72 laps to edge out his teammate by just under two tenths of a second.

Frenchman Randy de Puniet, whose Kawasaki team had been quickest overall on the first day of the test, was third fastest ahead of the Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa.

Fiat Yamaha's Colin Edwards was fifth fastest, with teammate Valentino Rossi down in eighth as his team finally got some serious evaluation of new engine evolutions under their belt.

Team director Davide Brivio said: "We had enough time to get some good work done, mostly tyre testing but Valentino also tried some new engine modifications and we found some small improvements in the engine performance.

"Now our engineers will work in Japan with the information gathered today, and we will decide whether or not we will use these new modifications at the next race in Istanbul."

Today's times:

Pos  Rider             Bike              Time
 1.  Marco Melandri    Honda Gresini     1:39.484
 2.  Toni Elias        Honda Gresini     1:39.675
 3.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki Racing   1:40.225
 4.  Carlos Checa      Honda LCR         1:40.356
 5.  Colin Edwards     Fiat Yamaha       1:41.755
 6.  Olivier Jacque    Kawasaki Racing   1:41.908
 7.  Makoto Tamada     Dunlop Yamaha     1:42.091
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Fiat Yamaha       1:42.348
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Repsol Honda      1:42.562
10.  Sylvain Guintoli  Dunlop Yamaha     1:42.736
11.  V. Guareschi      Ducati Marlboro   1:44.780
12.  Alex Debon        Aprilia Racing    1:46.618

All timing unofficial