Pedrosa edges clear of Lorenzo and Stoner in second MotoGP practice at Laguna Seca

The Spaniard worked his way down to a 1m21.088s at the session's half-way mark - around four tenths faster than the opening session - and was never headed thereafter.

As the pace increased, so did the accidents. Gresini's Alvaro Bautista, Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow and Ducati's Valentino Rossi all fell - the latter bringing out the red flags as his bike pierced the air fence on the outside of Turn 3.

All were unhurt in the accidents however, and Rossi was one of the first out when the session resumed with just over 10 minutes to run.

There were to be no changes to the top order though, with Pedrosa securing top spot from Yamaha's Lorenzo and his works Honda team-mate Casey Stoner. The Honda pair found marked improvements from the morning session, while Lorenzo's gains were more modest.

Fourth to sixth didn't change from the opening practice, with Ben Spies leading the satellite Tech 3 Yamahas of Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow.

Nicky Hayden finished as top Ducati in seventh, with LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl separating the American from team-mate Rossi. Bautista rounded out the top 10.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m21.088s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m21.422s  + 0.334s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m21.457s  + 0.369s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m21.708s  + 0.620s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m22.021s  + 0.933s
 6.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m22.258s  + 1.170s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m22.434s  + 1.346s
 8.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m22.568s  + 1.480s
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m22.772s  + 1.684s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m22.853s  + 1.765s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m23.835s  + 2.747s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m23.870s  + 2.782s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m24.732s  + 3.644s
14.  Toni Elias        Pramac Ducati             1m24.739s  + 3.651s
15.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m24.774s  + 3.686s
16.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m24.849s  + 3.761s
17.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m25.000s  + 3.912s
18.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m25.065s  + 3.977s
19.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m25.166s  + 4.078s
20.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m25.405s  + 4.317s
21.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m25.422s  + 4.334s
22.  Steve Rapp        Attack-Kawasaki           1m28.016s  + 6.928s