Stoner heads second free practice
Reigning world champion Casey Stoner topped a drying second free practice for the Japanese round of the MotoGP world championship at Motegi
Stoner set the fastest time on his Ducati with just over a quarter of the one-hour session remaining, having headed the times a couple of times earlier in the session.
The rider who he swapped the top spot with throughout the session was Dani Pedrosa, who recovered from a poor opening session to finish the session less than a tenth behind Stoner, having set several fastest times earlier in the session. Third fastest was Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha.
Fourth to seventh was covered by three-hundredths of a second, Andrea Dovizioso in fourth ahead of Loris Capirossi, who like Pedrosa, made a big improvement over first practice, with Sylvain Guintoli and Nicky Hayden, who was fastest in opening practice, in sixth and seventh.
Just as there were riders who make big improvements as the track dried, there were others who struggled. Nakano, who was sixth fastest in opening practice, slid to eleventh, while Australians Chris Vermeulen and Anthony West fell from tenth and eighth respectively to sixteenth and seventeenth.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:48.121 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda (B) 1:48.194 + 0.073 3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:48.510 + 0.389 4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:48.770 + 0.649 5. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:48.779 + 0.658 6. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:48.794 + 0.673 7. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:48.800 + 0.679 8. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:48.945 + 0.824 9. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:48.974 + 0.853 10. Randy De Puniet Honda (M) 1:49.149 + 1.028 11. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:49.190 + 1.069 12. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:49.197 + 1.076 13. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:49.344 + 1.223 14. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:49.424 + 1.303 15. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:49.505 + 1.384 16. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:49.664 + 1.543 17. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:50.131 + 2.010 18. Alex De Angelis Honda (B) 1:50.158 + 2.037 19. Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki (B) 1:50.879 + 2.758
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