Stoner heads second free practice

Ducati's Casey Stoner topped the second free practice session at Shanghai for Sunday's Chinese round of the MotoGP championship, just edging out his nearest rivals

Stoner topped the times early in the session, and set a benchmark of 2:00.163 just over a third of the way through the hour-long session. Despite his own efforts and those of his competitors, no-one was able to better the time and the time stood as the fastest of the session.

His rivals got quite close however, with Valentino Rossi chipping away at it through the middle of the session, setting the second fastest time of 2:00.215 with just over 20 minutes remaining for a Bridgestone 1-2.

Less than two tenths behind Stoner in third fastest was Dani Pedrosa on his Repsol Honda. Fourth fastest with a time set in the dying minutes of the session was Shinya Nakano on his Gresini Honda, just ahead of Kawasaki's John Hopkins and the second Repsol Honda of Nicky Hayden, the top six all within half a second of Stoner's time.

Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis, Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha's Colin Edwards completed the top ten, less than a second off the pace.

Marco Melandri's pace improved greatly in the second session, setting the 14th fastest time just behind James Toseland, exactly one and three quarter seconds slower than teammate Stoner, three seconds better than his effort in opening practice.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:00.163       
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  2:00.215  + 0.052
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  2:00.361  + 0.198
 4.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  2:00.553  + 0.390
 5.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  2:00.591  + 0.428
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  2:00.607  + 0.444
 7.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  2:00.931  + 0.768
 8.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  2:00.964  + 0.801
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  2:01.027  + 0.864
10.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:01.064  + 0.901
11.  Toni Elías        Ducati    (B)  2:01.326  + 1.163
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:01.504  + 1.341
13.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  2:01.798  + 1.635
14.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  2:01.913  + 1.750
15.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.002  + 1.839
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  2:02.348  + 2.185
17.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  2:02.407  + 2.244