In a frantic conclusion, Simone Corsi emerged with the quickest time in second practice for this weekend's Moto2 Grand Prix of Catalunya.
The Italian moved ahead of morning pacesetter Thomas Luthi in the dying seconds but any one of half a dozen riders could have snatched the top spot as the times tumble at the end of the session.
British pair Scott Redding and Bradley Smith were in the thick of the action too. With three minutews to go, Redding moved up to third behind Luthi and Stefan Bradl before been quickly demoted to fifth by Smith and Alex de Angelis.
Yuki Takahashi then jumped up to third, less than a tenth of a second down on Luthi before Corsi overtook the lot of them with a 1:47.373. The action wasn't over though and on his final lap, Smith was nearly a quarter of a second inside Corsi at the halfway stage of the lap. The Tech 3 rider would encounter traffic though as he entered the stadium section and had to settle for fifth.
Smith also had an action packed day off the bike, after revealing via his Twitter feed that he has turned down the opportunity to substitute for Colin Edwards in the Tech 3 MotoGP squad for this weekend and next weekend’s British Grand Prix. Smith has chosen instead to concentrate on his debut Moto2 campaign.
But with his delay on track, Corsi ended the day on top with Luthi hanging on to second despite setting his best time on his fourth flying lap out of 18. Alex de Angelis and Yuki Takahashi were third and fourth ahead of Smith, with championship leader Stefan Bradl completing the top six.
Mika Kallio put in his best performance of the season so far to go seventh on the Marc VDS Suter having reached as high as third at one point. Aleix Espargaro was there or thereabouts again in eighth while the flurry of late improvements demoted Scott Redding to ninth, although the 18-year-old will be pleased with his day's work.
Michele Pirro rounded out the top ten on the second Gresini Racing Moriwaki while Marc Marquez finished eleventh as he gradually got up to speed following his morning accident. Championship contenders Julian Simon and Andrea Iannone were 12th and 24th respectively but with 1.5seconds covering 28 riders, they can't be ruled out of a victory challenge.
Kev Coghlan had another solid session on the FTR machine, finishing in 31st place with a 1:49.218, marginally quicker than his morning effort.
