Pedrosa dominates second practice

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa continued where he left off in the opening practice session by dominating the second MotoGP practice session at Motegi

Pedrosa topped the times after 12 minutes of the session and was never headed again, lowering the mark again just before the halfway point of the session. He again lowered it twice with around 15 minutes remaining, his time of 1:47.865 nearly four tenths better than anyone else could manage.

Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet followed up a strong performance earlier in the day with the second-fastest time, a tenth faster than Marco Melandri who just edged out Suzuki rider John Hopkins.

Championship leader Casey Stoner, who had been second fastest with just a few minutes remaining in the session, ended the session in sixth just hundredths of a second ahead of Suzuki's Japanese rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, who was just ahead of Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi.

Nicky Hayden finished the session in ninth position, seven tenths behind his teammate.

Valentino Rossi's session was hampered by an apparent engine failure two-thirds through the session, Rossi pitting with smoke pouring from the rear of his bike.

Rossi returned to the track later in the session but could do no better than 14th, nearly a second off the pace, three places behind teammate Colin Edwards.

Alex Hofmann's Japanese replacement, Shinichi Ito, continued to struggle, setting the second-slowest time, nearly three seconds slower than Pedrosa.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:47.865
 2.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:48.254  + 0.389
 3.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  1:48.351  + 0.486
 4.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:48.361  + 0.496
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:48.444  + 0.579
 6.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Suzuki    (B)  1:48.457  + 0.592
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:48.499  + 0.634
 8.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:48.529  + 0.664
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:48.552  + 0.687
10.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  1:48.581  + 0.716
11.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.614  + 0.749
12.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:48.697  + 0.832
13.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:48.715  + 0.850
14.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:48.782  + 0.917
15.  Toni Elías        Honda     (B)  1:48.881  + 1.016
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:49.383  + 1.518
17.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:49.392  + 1.527
18.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:49.555  + 1.690
19.  Akira Yanagawa    Kawasaki  (B)  1:50.229  + 2.364
20.  Shinichi Itoh     Ducati    (B)  1:50.769  + 2.904
21.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  1:51.563  + 3.698