Stoner stays on top in Valencia
Casey Stoner continued to set the pace at Valencia this weekend as he finished the second free practice session with the fastest lap
The Australian sat at the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session, although his position came under threat in the closing minutes as Sylvain Guintoli moved up to second.
The French rider admitted that he put a qualifying tyre in for his penultimate run, but he claimed that he set his best lap on a race tyre on his final run.
The other front-runners were a lot closer to Stoner in the afternoon session, as this time six tenths of a second covered the top seven rather than the top two.
Dani Pedrosa, Marco Melandri and Chris Vermeulen all repeated their form from the morning to make the top five again, and behind them the times were very close.
Randy de Puniet and Alex Barros were sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, who went into the same race last year battling for the world championship.
Rossi would have been reminded of his defeat in 2006 towards the end of the session, when he took a trip through the gravel at Turn 2, the same corner he fell at in the race last year.
Pos Rider Bike Time Laps 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1:32.968 26
2. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha 1:33.084 + 0.116 26
3. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1:33.150 + 0.182 28
4. Marco Melandri Honda 1:33.319 + 0.351 27
5. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1:33.501 + 0.533 26
6. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki 1:33.519 + 0.551 27
7. Alex Barros Ducati 1:33.541 + 0.573 23
8. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:33.620 + 0.652 27
9. Nicky Hayden Honda 1:33.650 + 0.682 30
10. John Hopkins Suzuki 1:33.680 + 0.712 28
11. Carlos Checa Honda 1:33.831 + 0.863 25
12. Makoto Tamada Yamaha 1:33.899 + 0.931 28
13. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1:33.972 + 1.004 26
14. Loris Capirossi Ducati 1:34.000 + 1.032 23
15. Toni Elias Honda 1:34.218 + 1.250 27
16. Shinya Nakano Honda 1:34.352 + 1.384 28
17. Anthony West Kawasaki 1:34.413 + 1.445 25
18. Kurtis Roberts Kr212V 1:35.335 + 2.367 25
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