Stoner fastest on day two

The reigning world champion had been forced to skip day one when he hurt his back while warming up before going out for the first time. Although with a total mileage of 29 laps, he completed rather less running than his rivals today, Stoner still showed his and Honda's pace with a 2m00.895s lap.

That deposed morning pacesetter Ben Spies (Yamaha) by 0.157 seconds - although the American was briefly credited with a time 2.7s faster than anyone else due to a glitch near the end of the day.

Tuesday's fastest rider Jorge Lorenzo completed the top three on the second works Yamaha today, ahead of Stoner's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow - who again showed very strong pace on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

Quickest Ducati was the Pramac example of Hector Barbera in sixth, with works rider Valentino Rossi slightly off his Tuesday pace in seventh position, 0.9s down on Stoner.

Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda), Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) completed the top 10).

There was some encouragement for the CRT runners as Forward's Colin Edwards used a higher-spec Suter-BMW to get the gap to the front down to 4.7s, although the Avintia-branded, BQR-run, FTR-Kawasakis continued to struggle for speed and reliability at the tail of the field.

1. Casey Stoner (Honda) 2m00.895s

2. Ben Spies (Yamaha) + 0.157s

3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) + 0.173s

4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) + 0.613s

5. Cal Crutchlow (Tech 3 Yamaha) + 0.670s

6. Hector Barbera (Pramac Ducati) + 0.893s

7. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) + 0.991s

8. Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda) + 1.038s

9. Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3 Yamaha) + 1.265s

10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) + 1.459s

11. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) + 1.519s

12. Karel Abraham (Cardion Ducati) + 1.703s

13. Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha) + 2.046s

14. Franco Battaini (Ducati) + 3.416s

15. Colin Edwards (Forward Suter-BMW) + 4.708s

16. Ivan Silva (Avintia FTR-Kawasaki) + 9.402s

17. Jordi Torres (Avintia FTR-Kawasaki) + 10.998s

18. Robertino Pietri (Avintia FTR-Kawasaki) + 11.651s