Pedrosa powers through second session

Dani Pedrosa set a fresh marker on the new Silverstone circuit on Saturday morning as he broke the 2’05” barrier in the second practice session, setting a fastest lap of 2’04.944. The Repsol Honda rider improved his time from the first practice by 2.642 as his diligent study of the new layout paid off with the top time.

Randy de Puniet also made notable progress as he lapped at fractionally under three-tenths off Pedrosa with a best time of 2’05.241, giving the LCR Honda man the second best time of the session after his glowing report of the track the previous day.

Yesterday’s fastest rider and Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) was third on the timesheet as he lapped consistently, with a fastest lap 0.107s down on De Puniet’s. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro), another rider who professed his admiration of the new Silverstone after a first ride on Friday, was fourth at just over half a second off Pedrosa’s pace.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) recovered quickly from an early fall approaching Turn 10 – which forced De Puniet to run off as he avoided crashing into the Italian – to set the fifth best time of the session with his 19th and final lap, whilst Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) made a personal improvement of over two seconds to place sixth.

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team), Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) and Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) completed the top ten.

There were also falls in the session for Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) – at Turn 4 – and Simoncelli at Turn 3, and both returned to the track shortly after. Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) had a slow speed crash going through Turn 12 which appeared to cause him some discomfort.

The qualifying session for MotoGP begins at 1.55pm local time.