Barros stays on top

Alex Barros has continued his domination of the second round of the MotoGP World championship by setting the fastest lap in the second free practice session.

After setting the fastest time in the morning session Barros continued to sit at the top of the table for most of the afternoon as well, eventually finishing just ahead of second placed Sete Gibernau.

Third quickest time went to factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden with the Yamaha of Colin Edwards in fourth.

Valentino Rossi only managed to climb to sixth place behind Carlos Checa after suffering several near highsides.

Rossi changed bikes during the session but moved the suspension from one bike to the other to try and find out what was affecting the handling of the M1.

Max Biaggi finished just behind Rossi followed by Shinya Nakano.

John Hopkins managed to keep his Suzuki in the top eight for most of the session but several repeated trips to the gravel towards the end saw him drop to tenth behind the Yamaha of Toni Elias.

Barros’ team-mate Troy Bayliss failed to improve on his morning performance but high-sided spectacularly out, landing on his head. He returned to the track on his spare bike with a bit of stiff neck.

MCN’s Matthew Birt is in Portugal to cover the action and get behind the scenes to bring you the stories you won’t find anywhere on the web and the secrets behind the TV pictures. Read his full reports and see our world-class pictures only in our April 20 issue.

But keep bang up to date with practice, qualifying and race results on motorcyclenews.com all weekend.

Official times:

Alex Barros, 1:38.516

Sete Gibernau, 1:39.065

Nicky Hayden, 1:39.072

Colin Edwards, 1:39.144

Carlos Checa, 1:39.200

Valentino Rossi, 1:39.446

Max Biaggi, 1:39.477

Shinya Nakano, 1:39.535

Toni Elias, 1:39.732

John Hopkins, 1:39.769

Kenny Roberts, 1:39.804

Loris Capirossi, 1:39.820

Makoto Tamada, 1:39.997

Marco Melandri, 1:40.020

Ruben Xaus, 1:40.163

Troy Bayliss, 1:40.639

James Ellison, 1:42.140

Shane Byrne, 1:42.462

Roberto Rolfo, 1:42.768

Franco Battaini, 1:43.404