German MotoGP: Casey Stoner's dominance continues at Sachsenring

Casey Stoner continued his Sachsenring domination this afternoon when he comfortably beat MotoGP world championship rivals Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa in the second free practice session.

Stoner’s best of 1.22.737 set with 19 minutes of the session remaining secured him the fastest time of the day and ensured he continued his impressive start to the German MotoGP clash.

The Aussie was fastest in this morning’s opening free practice session and continued that form to beat Valentino Rossi into second place by 0.346s.

Rossi’s best of 1.23.083 got him within 0.4s of Casey Stoner though he left it late, posting his best time in the last three minutes.

Just prior to that Rossi had been as far back as 0.611s on his main MotoGP world title rival. Casey Stoner is defending a 21-point lead heading into Sunday’s 30-lap encounter.

Stoner was typically quick out of the traps and lap of 1.23.218 after only 18 minutes saw him move 0.277s clear of Valentino Rossi.

He then bettered that with a 1.22.942 that moved him further clear of the 28-year-old Fiat Yamaha rider by 0.553s.

His best lap of 1.22.737 had moved him as far as 0.758s clear of Rossi before the seven-times world champion’s late charge.

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, who is still winless in the new 800cc era and hasn’t won a premier class for 12 months, set the third best time in the last two minutes.

His 1.23.366 was still a massive 0.629s adrift of Stoner even though he slashed over a second off his best time from this morning when he was only ninth.

Surprise of the day came from French Tech 3 Yamaha rider Sylvain Guintoli who claimed fourth place. He clocked a best of 1.23.387 on his last lap to finish 0.676s behind Casey Stoner.

He’d initially jumped to fourth with six minutes remaining with a 1.23.464. He completed his best times on a super soft Dunlop rear tyre.

Carlos Checa continued his impressive start to the Sachsenring clash with the fifth best time, which followed up his second place this morning.

The Spanish LCR Honda rider got as high as third with 13 minutes remaining and ended with a best of 1.23.413.

Marco Melandri claimed sixth as he too was as high as third at one stage. The former world 250 champion clocked a 1.23.430 with 11 minutes remaining and couldn’t better that in the final stages.

Alex Barros had to settle for seventh as he rode with the little finger on his right hand heavily bandaged after a crash this morning.

His right arm got trapped under his D’Antin Ducati and he scraped most of the skin off his little finger. He still produced a best lap of 1.23.548, which with 12 minutes remaining catapulted him as high as fourth.

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden’s miserable opening day continued as he slumped to 16th fastest. He was the only rider not to better his time from this morning.

The American crashed this morning and late in this afternoon’s session his factory Honda RC212V suffered a spectacular engine blow-up on the start/finish straight.

The blow-up was so severe that metal pieces of debris were being collected off the track at the end of the session.

Nicky Hayden managed to park his stricken V4 machine at the side of the track but fluid could be visibly seen pouring out of the bottom of the bellypan.

Fellow American Kurtis Roberts escaped injured when he crashed the KR212V after just 11 minutes, while John Hopkins (Rixla Suzuki) and Loris Capirossi (Ducati) both had off-track excursions at the first corner.

MotoGP free practice two results: 

1 Casey STONER AUS DUCATI 1’22.737
2 Valentino ROSSI ITA YAMAHA 1’23.083
3 Dani PEDROSA SPA HONDA 1’23.366
4 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA YAMAHA 1’23.387
5 Carlos CHECA SPA HONDA 1’23.413
6 Marco MELANDRI ITA HONDA 1’23.430
7 Alex BARROS BRA DUCATI 1’23.548
8 Colin EDWARDS USA YAMAHA 1’23.613
9 John HOPKINS USA SUZUKI 1’23.645
10 Randy DE PUNIET FRA KAWASAKI 1’23.667
11 Chris VERMEULEN AUS SUZUKI 1’23.683
12 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA DUCATI 1’23.687
13 Alex HOFMANN GER DUCATI 1’23.856
14 Makoto TAMADA JPN YAMAHA 1’24.090
15 Anthony WEST AUS KAWASAKI 1’24.106
16 Shinya NAKANO JPN HONDA 1’24.208
17 Nicky HAYDEN USA HONDA 1’24.238
18 Michel FABRIZIO ITA HONDA 1’24.748
19 Kurtis ROBERTS USA KR212V 1’25.316