Repeat showing from Lorenzo in FP2

Jorge Lorenzo led a close second practice session at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya on Saturday morning, repeating his top spot on the timesheet from the previous day. The Fiat Yamaha rider’s best lap of 1’42.748 placed him just five-hundredths of a second ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), as five riders got under the 1’43” bar.

Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner was just 0.038s further back from Pedrosa in third spot, whilst Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) took over 1.2s off his time from FP1 to record the fourth best time of the second session. Aleix Espargaró’s continual improvements did not stop, with the Pramac Racing rider just over two-tenths off Lorenzo in fifth spot.

The top seven was completed by Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) who both got within half a second of Lorenzo. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) was eighth as he made an improvement to time in at 0.513s off the Spaniard. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) were also in the top ten, and Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech3) who was fifth yesterday placed 14th in this session at 1.198s off the top time.

There were minor run-offs at the end of the session for Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) – who was 11th quickest – as well as Espargaró and Dovizioso, but none were serious as the trio remained on their bikes.