Rossi tops second session in Spain

But Pedrosa's morning time remained the best of the day - 0.3 seconds faster than Rossi's afternoon effort - and the Spaniard was also fastest for the majority of second practice despite falling from his bike early on.

Pedrosa lapped in 1:43.391 shortly afternoon the session got underway, but then suffered a low-side at Turn 3 and parted company with his bike as it slid into the gravel.

He escaped uninjured and was able to rejoin later in the hour and complete another 17 laps. His early lap time stood as the fastest of the afternoon until Rossi beat it by 0.072 seconds at the very end of the session, with Hopkins grabbing second at the same time.

Toni Elias continued his promising morning practice form to go fourth quickest, 0.2 seconds off the pace, ahead of championship leader Casey Stoner, whose Ducati teammate Loris Capirossi escaped a trip through the gravel with no ill-effects, but could only manage 14th on the timesheets.

Chris Vermeulen, Marco Melandri, Alex Barros, Colin Edwards and Shinya Nakano filled the remaining top ten positions.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:43.313
 2.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:43.389  + 0.076
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:43.391  + 0.078
 4.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:43.592  + 0.279
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:43.683  + 0.370
 6.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:43.713  + 0.400
 7.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:43.811  + 0.498
 8.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:43.857  + 0.544
 9.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:43.865  + 0.552
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:44.003  + 0.690
11.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:44.141  + 0.828
12.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:44.267  + 0.954
13.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:44.303  + 0.990
14.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:44.426  + 1.113
15.  Olivier Jacque    Kawasaki  1:44.466  + 1.153
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:44.665  + 1.352
17.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:44.743  + 1.430
18.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:44.880  + 1.567
19.  Kenny Roberts Jr  KR        1:45.284  + 1.971
20.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:46.153  + 2.840