Repsol Honda‘s Casey Stoner continued to dominate the desert of Qatar with another strong performance in free practice, beating his previous time in free practice 1 by 0.3s. The Australian was 0.3s ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa in conditions that were windier than yesterday. Factory Yamaha rider Ben Spies moved into 3rd spot after claiming 6th in FP1.
Andrea Dovizioso was 4th after setting his time during his longest run. Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo had a problem with his factory Yamaha machine which limited his track time. In the little time he did have, his quickest time was good enough for 5th place.
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 duo of Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow had a session to remember. Edwards posted a time quick enough for 6th place, and Crutchlow, who bearing in mind is still missing a rather large chunk of his little finger, placed 8th on the timesheet. The San Carlo Honda Gresini of Marco Simoncelli slotted in between in 7th.
Valentino Rossi was less than impressed with rookie , Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham, as he tried to use the veteran Italian to gain a slipstream on the straight. Rossi then finished the session in 9th, with Abraham in 16th. Rossi was closely followed by Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden in 10th.
Randy De Puniet was the lead Pramac Ducati in 11th on the timesheet, with Mapfre Aspar rider Hector Barbera suffering a big fall from grace after yesterday’s 3rd place, rounding out a quartet of Ducati’s in 12th. 13th place on the timesheet was occupied by the second San Carlo machine of Hiroshi Aoyama.
Ãlvaro Bautista continued to have troubles on his Rizla Suzuki as he placed 14th, followed by the second Pramac Ducati of Loris Capirossi in 15th and Toni Elias must be wondering what on earth he has to do to get himself off the bottom of the timesheet, as he only managed 17th on his LCR Honda.
