Casey Stoner continues to be the man to beat in Qatar this weekend, but the rest of the MotoGP field is getting wise, and starting to encrouch on the Australian’s lap times in Free Practice 2.
Despite the fact that Stoner has improved his laptime by 0.7 seconds, Valentino Rossi has closed the gap significantly, and is now only a tenth of a second behind the Ducati. Stoner, Rossi, Caprirossi, and Lorenzo make up a quartet of riders who are in the :56’s going into the qualifying session. Other notable mentions are: Marco Melandri, who is the 5th fastest man on the grid with the Hayate motorcycle, which beat out all of the Hondas, a factory Suzuki and a factory Ducati to finish just 0.8 off of Stoner, and Colin Ewards who seems to stuck in quicksand, and unable to improve on yesterday’s times.
Unlike Edwards though, Dani Pedrosa seems to be finding riding a little easier today as he improved his times to become twelfth fastest in the practice, up from dead last yesterday. Meanwhile, Nicky Hayden’s struggle with the Ducati has gotten worse, finishing the day in the 15th position. His only consolation will be that he has two Ducati’s behind him, one being that of Sete Gibernau’s.
Results from Free Practice 2 at the Qatar MotoGP:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff. | Diff. Previous |
| 1 | 27 | Casey STONER | DUCATI | 1’56.310 | ||
| 2 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | YAMAHA | 1’56.406 | 0.096 | 0.096 |
| 3 | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | SUZUKI | 1’56.598 | 0.288 | 0.192 |
| 4 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 1’56.649 | 0.339 | 0.051 |
| 5 | 33 | Marco MELANDRI | KAWASAKI | 1’57.135 | 0.825 | 0.486 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | HONDA | 1’57.290 | 0.980 | 0.155 |
| 7 | 7 | Chris VERMEULEN | SUZUKI | 1’57.576 | 1.266 | 0.286 |
| 8 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | YAMAHA | 1’57.714 | 1.404 | 0.138 |
| 9 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | HONDA | 1’57.971 | 1.661 | 0.257 |
| 10 | 52 | James TOSELAND | YAMAHA | 1’58.125 | 1.815 | 0.154 |
| 11 | 15 | Alex DE ANGELIS | HONDA | 1’58.152 | 1.842 | 0.027 |
| 12 | 3 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 1’58.349 | 2.039 | 0.197 |
| 13 | 36 | Mika KALLIO | DUCATI | 1’58.361 | 2.051 | 0.012 |
| 14 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | HONDA | 1’58.618 | 2.308 | 0.257 |
| 15 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 1’59.226 | 2.916 | 0.608 |
| 16 | 72 | Yuki TAKAHASHI | HONDA | 1’59.340 | 3.030 | 0.114 |
| 17 | 88 | Niccolo CANEPA | DUCATI | 1’59.564 | 3.254 | 0.224 |
| 18 | 59 | Sete GIBERNAU | DUCATI | 2’00.256 | 3.946 | 0.692 |
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