A late surge from Casey Stoner took the MotoGP champion back to first place at the end of the second free practice session for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo had been the man to beat for most of the 45 minutes, holding a comfortable advantage over his rivals. But then Stoner (Honda) jumped from sixth to first with a 1m55.960s, beating Lorenzo by 0.214sec.
It was still a very encouraging session for Yamaha, as Tech 3's Andrea Dovizioso and works rider Ben Spies completed the top four. Stoner's teammate Dani Pedrosa crashed at Turn 8 halfway through the session, but was unhurt and rejoined to take sixth.
Ducati's lead runner was Pramac rider Hector Barbera, who grabbed fifth place – two positions ahead of top works rider Nicky Hayden, with Valentino Rossi down in 10th.
Cal Crutchlow again appeared near the head of the time sheets for a while before others' late improvements pushed the Tech 3 man back, this time to eighth. Colin Edwards led the CRT pack on Forward's Suter-BMW, lapping a tenth quicker than Aspar Aprilia man Randy de Puniet.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap
1. Casey Stoner Honda 1m55.960s
2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m56.174s + 0.214s
3. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.648s + 0.688s
4. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m56.671s + 0.711s
5. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 1m56.678s + 0.718s
6. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m56.697s + 0.737s
7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m56.782s + 0.822s
8. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.814s + 0.854s
9. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m57.197s + 1.237s
10. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m57.274s + 1.314s
11. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m57.523s + 1.563s
12. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m57.668s + 1.708s
13. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 1m58.801s + 2.841s
14. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m58.945s + 2.985s
15. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m59.698s + 3.738s
16. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m59.997s + 4.037s
17. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 2m00.231s + 4.271s
18. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia 2m00.373s + 4.413s
19. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Aprilia 2m00.404s + 4.444s
20. Ivan Silva Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m00.787s + 4.827s
21. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 2m02.112s + 6.152s