Simoncelli Edges Out Lorenzo on Friday Afternoon

Marco Simoncelli held on to his advantage from the morning session despite a strong challenge from Jorge Lorenzo at the Sachsenring. The reigning World Champion set back-to-back laps to take the lead in the dying seconds with a 1:22.320 but Simoncelli was still on a flyer, and duly outpaced the Spaniard by 0.095s.

Lorenzo still managed to beat the trio of Repsol Hondas who followed closely behind. Dani Pedrosa was just under a quarter of a second off the pace and sneaked in front of series leader Casey Stoner by a tenth of a second, with Andrea Dovizioso fifth.

Nicky Hayden was once again the pacesetter for Ducati in sixth but the gap to the ultimate pace had almost doubled since the morning session. The Italian squad have even more work to do after Valentino Rossi's GP11.1 stopped midway through the session. Rossi rejoined on the spare bike but ended up a disappointing 12^th.

Ben Spies took seventh on the second factory Yamaha while Randy de Puniet had another impressive session as he looks to turn the tide on what has been a disappointing year so far. The Frenchman edged ahead of Alvaro Bautista for eighth.

Karel Abraham rounded out the top ten while Colin Edwards was the quickest of the Tech3 Yamahas in 11^th. Behind Rossi came Hector Barbera and Cal Crutchlow in 13^th and 14^th, the Briton had an off-track excursion at the high-speed turn 11 that caused such trouble this morning but escaped injury. Barbera also found the gravel trap during the session after sliding off at the final corner and missed the end of the session.

Hiroshi Aoyama finished in 15^th position ahead of Toni Elias who thankfully avoided the accidents that blighted his morning session. Sylvain Guintoli brought up the rear as he got down to business on the Pramac Ducati in place of the injured Loris Capirossi, who was declared unfit following FP1.

Combined Friday Practice Times: