Pedrosa scorches second day at Sepang

The Spaniard, who set his best lap time early in the morning session, was more than half a second faster than his team-mate Casey Stoner, while Ben Spies - trying different specifications of factory Yamaha M1s - was third fastest.

Pedrosa, who reckoned he had never ridden so fast around Sepang, tried the new 2011 engine among other things, and declared himself pleased with it.

"I think it's the first time I've ridden so fast on this track, but you're just fresh in the morning and I did four very good first laps," he said. "I was not looking for a time, but I saw that the track conditions were good and I pushed. The closer you get to the limit, the clearer the changes you are doing on the bike become, which lead you in the right direction.

"Today I tried the new engine, which has improved from Valencia, some chassis configurations and rear shocks. Tomorrow the plan is to continue comparing both bikes and it would be great to come away with the chassis and engine decided for the next test."

Andrea Dovizioso made it three HRC bikes in the top four, while Marco Simoncelli, using a factory RC212V run out of the Gresini garage, was fifth fastest ahead of team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo was seventh fastest after spending the day evaluating a new chassis for his factory Yamaha, while Alvaro Bautista slipped to eighth on the sole Suzuki.

Hector Barbera was the fastest Ducati rider in tenth spot, the Aspar team 1.3s off the ultimate pace, but still some 0.3s up on the factory GP11 of Nicky Hayden who was 11th.

Valentino Rossi struggled with his injured shoulder once again, and was two tenths slower than his team-mate Hayden, the factory Ducati pair split by Randy de Puniet's Pramac Ducati.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              2m00.770s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Honda              2m01.434s + 0.664s
 3.  Ben Spies         Yamaha             2m01.508s + 0.738s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              2m01.512s + 0.742s
 5.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      2m01.522s + 0.752s
 6.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda      2m01.534s + 0.764s
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             2m01.563s + 0.793s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             2m01.687s + 0.917s
 9.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      2m01.722s + 0.952s
10.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       2m02.093s + 1.323s
11.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             2m02.379s + 1.609s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati      2m02.426s + 1.656s
13.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati             2m02.597s + 1.827s
14.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Honda Test         2m02.619s + 1.849s
15.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha      2m03.032s + 2.262s
16.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati      2m03.047s + 2.277s
17.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati     2m03.466s + 2.696s
18.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda          2m04.026s + 3.256s