From motogp.com
It was the familiar Repsol Honda duo leading the way in the second free practice on Friday but this time it was the Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa who got the better of his team-mate Casey Stoner for this weekend's Gran Premio bwin de España MotoGP World Championship event.
Pedrosa's lap time of 1:40.101 in FP2 was 0.188 faster than the Australian. The Spanish rider is a previous winner here in Jerez and on home soil he will be wanting to build on his third place after Qatar, after being compromised by a shoulder injury.
"I think we are doing a good job," Pedrosa said. "The bike was working OK. It was moving a little but maybe because the grip was not so good today. Other riders were also struggling with it and we saw some crashes in all categories. Also the strong wind played a part in the afternoon, it was more difficult to control the bike especially on fast corners and we couldn't improve the lap times.
"Regarding my physical condition, I'm struggling in the same way I did in the Qatar race because the situation has not changed, but I cannot do anything to feel better, so I'm just focused on riding as best as I can. I'm doing short runs because it's better for me and working on the bike to prepare for the race."
Team-mate Stoner is the first Honda rider to be leading the MotoGP championship standings since Pedrosa, after the Dutch TT in 2008. This session was the first time the ex-Ducati rider will not top the timesheets since the season has begun.
"The first session went well and I had a good feeling with the bike," Stoner said. "We tried to repeat this in the afternoon session but the conditions weren't perfect - it was quite windy. It seems to be a little smoother to ride here than in the past, but it's a shame the weather wasn't better, so we could spend some time working on the settings.
"In general both bikes we tried seemed to work pretty well. The grip level doesn't seem to be so good here, I think everyone is struggling with this, so that's another element we need to work on tomorrow in time for qualifying."
In glorious conditions for free practice 2 for MotoGP, with temperatures of around 31 degrees and a strong breeze, the top seven riders failed to improve on their times set in the morning practice. Pedrosa's time was nearly six tenths slower than Stoner's best lap from FP1.
Reigning MotoGP World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) was the best of the rest, moving up from fifth from the morning session to third. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) repeated his form from FP1, with the fourth fastest lap, 0.600 off the time from the Repsol Honda rider.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) was the fastest Ducati, registering a time 0.946 behind Pedrosa. The next Ducati was that of Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) in sixth place who finished ahead of Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), who was further back in eighth.
Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), making only his second visit to the Jerez circuit after his debut here in 2010 was seventh fastest splitting the two Ducati bikes.
Ninth quickest was Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) who had been 13th in the first practice and is a previous victor in Jerez after a race win in the 250cc race in 2009, his only podium at the circuit.
Rookie Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) had a few incidents in FP2, firstly when he had a minor excursion into the gravel but regained control, then later on sliding off at turn 6. He managed to finish in 10th place, 1.203 behind Pedrosa, ahead of both Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and Rizla Suzuki riders in just his second outing in the premier class.
Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing Moto2) put a morning crash behind him to bounce back and head the Moto2 field in FP2 for the Gran Premio bwin de España. However, Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) remained the fastest rider on Friday in Jerez in the combined times of the two practice sessions.
The afternoon session was held in ideal weather conditions, hotter than FP1 but with strong winds which affected the times set. The Japanese rider's best lap from the afternoon was 1:44.044, which was nearly six-tenths slower than the Swiss rider's best lap from the first session.
Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) battled to second fastest after a difficult session which saw him sit out the majority of it with mechanical issues. The reigning 125cc World Champion was 15th fastest in the morning session so improved his lap time in the second session and was just 0.095 off the fastest lap time set in FP2. Third quickest was Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), who was 0.109 off Takahashi.
In 125cc action, Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) became the first rider to knock Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) off the top spot in the 2011 World Championship in an action packed second practice session. Terol had been the pace setter in FP1, but it was the German rider who finished top of the timesheets in the afternoon practice with a laptime of 1:48.717, which was faster than what he had set in FP1.
Terol was unable to improve on his time set in FP1 and recorded a time 0.499 slower, however remained the quickest rider on show in the combined practice times.
