Casey Stoner showed that Yamaha will not have things its own way at the Red Bull GP at Indianapolis by going fastest for Honda in the second free practice session at the legendary Brickyard.
Stoner had trailed morning pace-setter Ben Spies for most of the session, but flew to the top of the times with a 1m40.828s lap with four minutes to go, and then moved farther ahead by lapping in 1m40.724s on his final flying effort.
Stoner somehow avoided a late crash by taking the whole weight of his bike on his right knee after losing the front end – just a lap after almost colliding with a gopher that ran across the track.
Spies was 0.194sec slower, but retained second place ahead of Dani Pedrosa's Honda and his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
As well as the order at the sharp end having a much more familiar look about it than during the morning session, the times were much quicker too – almost three seconds better, in fact – as more rubber was laid down on the new track surface. Andrea Dovizioso made it all three works Hondas in the top five with Colin Edwards next up on his Tech 3 Yamaha.
Gresini Honda rider Marco Simoncelli, Ducati's Nicky Hayden and Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista were next up while Pramac Ducti rider Randy de Puniet was impressively 10th fastest and a spot ahead of Valentino Rossi's works machine.
Rossi twice went off the circuit after running on at corners, but stayed on the bike each time and avoided the barriers.