Casey Stoner continued his Phillip Island masterclass with another empathic showing in second practice.
As was the case in the opening session the Australian was quickly into his stride, dipping into the 1m30s early on to move around one second clear of the field. As others then improved, so did Stoner and with 12 minutes to go he set a new weekend benchmark with a 1m29.999s.
At the time no other rider had even broken the 1m31s barrier, although Dani Pedrosa on the second Honda was at least able to rectify that with a 1m30.884s three minutes from the flag. That put him just over one tenth clear of championship rival Jorge Lorenzo, who holds a dwindled 23-point advantage over his compatriot coming into the penultimate round of 2012.
Despite struggling with bronchitis, Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow was next up in fourth, ahead of teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Honda satellite riders Alvaro Bautista (Gresini) and Stefan Bradl (LCR) rounded out the top seven ahead of works Ducati riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.
Neither of the Desmosedici riders were able to get within two seconds of Stoner's best.
Randy de Puniet on the lead CRT ended 10th fastest, ahead of the prototype Ducatis of Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap
1. Casey Stoner Honda 1m29.999s
2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m30.884s + 0.885s
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m31.005s + 1.006s
4. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.367s + 1.368s
5. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.458s + 1.459s
6. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m31.616s + 1.617s
7. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m31.702s + 1.703s
8. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m32.030s + 2.031s
9. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m32.654s + 2.655s
10. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m32.674s + 2.675s
11. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 1m32.706s + 2.707s
12. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m32.744s + 2.745s
13. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 1m33.835s + 3.836s
14. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 1m34.002s + 4.003s
15. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m34.479s + 4.480s
16. Danilo Petrucci Ioda Suter-BMW 1m34.531s + 4.532s
17. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 1m34.561s + 4.562s
18. Ivan Silva Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m34.746s + 4.747s
19. Roberto Rolfo Speed Master Aprilia 1m34.771s + 4.772s
20. Kris McLaren Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m38.203s + 8.204s