Stoner heads second practice

Stoner was the pace-setter throughout the session, topping the times after six minutes and never relinquishing the top position. He got down to a 1:31.286 during a succession of quick laps in the middle of the session.

Light rain with 15 minutes remaining in the session looked to have prevented the possibility of any more fast laps for the riders, but in the dying minutes some of them returned to the track.

Marco Melandri was one of those on his Honda, and proved it was a good decision by moving up to second fastest with a time of 1:31.555, pushing fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa's time from much earlier in the sesson down to third.

Valentino Rossi was next on his Yamaha, ahead of another strong performance by Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet.

Alex Barros bounced back from a poor morning session to set the sixth fastest time on his Pramac D'Antin Ducati, just ahead of Honda rider Carlos Checa and the factory Ducati of Loris Capirossi.

2006 world champion Nicky Hayden and local rider Anthony West completed the top ten, just ahead of Suzuki rider John Hopkins, who was nearly two seconds slower than Stoner.

A promising start for Hopkins' teammate Chris Vermeulen in opening practice was not repeated in the second session, Vermeulen over two and a half seconds off the pace in 14th, though he was faster than Colin Edwards and Toni Elias.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:31.286
 2.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  1:31.555  + 0.269
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:31.802  + 0.516
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:31.934  + 0.648
 5.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:31.996  + 0.710
 6.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:32.164  + 0.878
 7.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:32.182  + 0.896
 8.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:32.203  + 0.917
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:32.316  + 1.030
10.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:32.459  + 1.173
11.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:33.274  + 1.988
12.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:33.838  + 2.552
13.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    (B)  1:33.910  + 2.624
14.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:33.945  + 2.659
15.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:33.965  + 2.679
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:33.991  + 2.705
17.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  1:34.204  + 2.918
18.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  1:35.177  + 3.891
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR212V    (M)  1:36.121  + 4.835