Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner has topped the second MotoGP free practice timesheets at Indianapolis this evening, fending off this morning's quickest man Ben Spies while Dani Pedrosa found masses of pace over the lunchbreak, promoting himself to third with his last lap.
Stoner was already leading before he put in his final circuit of 1'40.724 and that was after he nearly ran over a muskrat/skunk and then survived a big moment when he lost the rear and then the front into turn 15. Yamaha's Spies led for a majority of the session before succumbing to Stoner's outright speed.
The Texan finished only two-tenths behind the Australian and was the only other rider to dip under the 1'41s barrier. Pedrosa was half a second slower than his Repsol Honda team-mate on a 1'41.205 and that bumped compatriot Jorge Lorenzo, on the other works Yamaha, into fourth and seven tenths in arrears.
Andrea Dovizioso also found a bit of speed over his pasta, going fifth fastest ahead of Colin Edwards' Monster Yamaha while Marco Simoncelli placed seventh, just ahead of Nicky Hayden on the Marlboro Ducati. Alvaro Bautista in ninth with Randy De Puniet, on the satellite Pramac Ducati, round out the top ten.
Valentino Rossi, on the other works Ducati, is down in 11th place and 1.7s off the pace. His 1'42.405 is around two seconds faster than his time from earlier and that was good enough for sixth. By comparison, Stoner did a 1'43.552 in the first session…
Britain's Cal Crutchlow, who hadn't ridden at Indianapolis until this morning, was 15th fastest on a 1'43.085. He did a 1'45.368 in the opening session so is making progress.
