Repsol Honda trio Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso occupied the top three spots on the timesheet by the midway stage of day two at the Sepang Test. Absent from the session with illness was Valentino Rossi.
Second day at Sepang sees Honda top once more

Day two at Sepang started in the spirit of giving as the MotoGP riders gathered at 9.30am local time to present a cheque for the funds raised by the 'RM2 or More' programme, but when the business of on-track action got underway the Repsol Honda riders were in focused mood as they topped the timesheet by the midway point of the middle day of the Test.

Leading the way was Dani Pedrosa with a scorching lap of 2'00.229, surpassing Valentino Rossi's 2009 circuit best lap by almost three-tenths of a second as he took his RC212V round at a lightning pace.

Unfortunately for Rossi his participation on day two has so far been curtailed by a fever, which forced the Ducati rider to spend some time in the Clinica Mobile before returning to his hotel without having ridden a lap. The Italian may return to the circuit later in the afternoon if his condition improves.

No such hindrances for the remaining two factory Honda riders Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, who at +0.113s and +0.302s down on Pedrosa ensured an all-Repsol Honda top three, with Factory Yamaha Racing pair Ben Spies (+0.595s) and Jorge Lorenzo (+0.702s) the only other two to get under the 2'01” marker in the earlier half of the day as they completed the top five by that stage.

San Carlo Honda Gresini pair Marco Simoncelli and Hiroshi Aoyama followed as they underlined the strength of the RC212V, the Italian the final rider to get within a second of Pedrosa. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) also recorded early top-ten times, with Nicky Hayden the highest placing Ducati in tenth and at 1.979s off the top time.

A quartet of Desmosedicis followed Hayden in Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar), Randy de Puniet, Loris Capirossi (both Pramac Racing) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), whilst Toni Elías (LCR Honda) and rookie Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completed the timesheet.