Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi put in a last-ditch charge to keep Casey Stoner honest in the second MotoGP fre practice at Qatar, just as it looked like the Marlboro Ducati was unstoppable.
The Aussie had a lead of almost a second with three minutes to go in the session after lapping at 1'56.310 but The Doctor pulled a lap out of the bag to consolidate his second place, just one one one-hundredth of slower.
In the final minutes, Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi got within spitting distance of his countryman, lapping in 1'56.595 which is just three-tenths slower than the Australian.
Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo claimed fourth fastest while Marco Melandri was fifth, just under a second off the pace. Monster Yamaha's Colin Edwards, who held third place for most of the session, eventually slipped to eighth behind Andrea Dovizioso and Chris Vermeulen.
Britain's James Toseland eventually finished just two places behind his team-mate in 10th after sitting at the foot of the table for some of the session.
The injured Dani Pedrosa hauled himself from last to 12th in the dying seconds while Sete Gibernau finished last nearly four seconds off the pace.
