MotoGP – Estoril FP2 – Stoner precedes Hayden, Rossi eighth

In the second free practice session of the MotoGP class in Estoril, in the Portuguese GP, the penultimate round of the 2006 world championship, the fastest on the track was Casey Stoner with the LCR Team Honda. The Australian driver stopped the clock at a time of 1'38"218 and preceded the world championship leader and teammate Nicky Hayden by just 50 thousandths. The Team Honda HRC rider improved his time at the 27th of the 28 laps completed and put the Honda-powered KR211V of Kenny Roberts Jr. behind him.

Carlos Checa put in a great performance as he took the 3th fastest time on the Team Tech 4 Yamaha with Dunlop tires ahead of the "Rookie of The Year" Dani Pedrosa (Honda HRC) and the Yamaha of the American Colin Edwards. The first Ducati follows, that of the Spaniard Sete Gibernau who is 597 thousandths behind Stoner.

Valentino Rossi, who had achieved the best time this morning, is instead eighth with a delay of 608 thousandths. The Pesaro driver completed 25 laps, obtaining his best time on lap 18. Loris Capirossi's Ducati was late, only 13th and preceded by Hopkins' Suzuki, Nakano's Kawasaki, Elias' Honda and Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki. Capirossi is 1"788 behind while Garry McCoy's Ilmor X3 800cc is eighteenth with a gap of 3"878 from Stoner.

However, a bad fall for Marco Melandri who only completed one lap. The Team Fortuna Honda Gresini rider was transported on a stretcher and appears to have shoulder and knee problems.