After the Australian rider had set the fastest time in FP1 this morning, edging his Spanish teammate by only 0.028 seconds, Pedrosa returned to the track this afternoon much more eager to improve his pace. Windy conditions however have made his progress in FP2 less impressive, as he set a time approximately half a second slower than this morning.
In the end, he stopped the clock at 1:40.101, some 0.188 seconds ahead of Stoner. Which means that once again Honda's factory team has put two of its 3 riders on top of the timing reports, while Gresini's Marco Simoncelli almost made it a 1-2-3 finish for the Japanese manufacturer at the end of the day.
As in FP1, the Italian's efforts were not enough to secure him 3rd position, only this time it was Yamaha's reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo, not Valentino Rossi, to deprive him of that position. A late surge from the Spaniard spoiled Honda's fun on top of the timing reports, while Rossi continued his promising pace at Jerez with a decent 5th place.
In fact, Ducati has been the manufacturer to improve the most as compared to the first weekend in Qatar, as the Top 10 included 3 more riders competing on Italian bikes. While Pramac's Randy de Puniet had to settle for 6th, Rossi's teammate at Ducati scored an 8th place, while Cardion AB's Karel Abraham had to settle for 10th.
MotoGP action will resume on the Jerez circuit tomorrow morning, with the 3rd and final practice session of the Spanish GP.
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