Casey Stoner tops the time sheet

While Jorge Lorenzo was fastest on the first day of MotoGP testing at Sepang in Malaysia, Casey Stoner has stormed to the front of the pack on day two.

Posting a time of 2.00.895 on the new 1000cc Honda RC213V prototype bike, Stoner was the only Honda rider on the 'podium', so to speak, with Yamaha riders Ben Spies second fastest and team mate Jorge Lorenzo third fastest with times of 2.01.052 and 2.01.068 respectively.

Stoner missed out on the first day of testing due to a back strain, but if first impressions are anything to go by it seems the Australian is on track to be at the pointy end of the field again.

Stoner's team mate Dani Pedrosa was fourth with a time of 2.01.508.

Stoner was upbeat about how he felt on the new Honda RC213V, but said he would have liked some of the feel of last year's bike: "It was great to be able to ride today and everything went pretty well, although I would have liked to have done a few more laps," he said. "We spent most of the day on the new chassis comparing it back to back with the one we had in Valencia and we found a good direction and where we want to go. As usual it would be great to take some elements from one chassis and some from the other, but at least we found the direction we are happy to follow.

"We used the hard front tyre this afternoon but found we had more chattering with it so we have to work on this; there is still room for improvement. We didn't get a chance to use the new-spec tyres that Bridgestone has brought here; we'll try them out tomorrow and go from there."

Yamaha Factory rider Spies is hot on Stoner's heels, however, and 2012 could be the American's year. Could we see a new rivalry emerging?

"We got going pretty well in the morning," said Spies, "then even when the track started to slow down the pace was still really good. We started to mess with the balance of the bike a little today and played with the electronics to find a good foundation with the bike. At Valencia we compared some stuff and got in the right direction.

"Now we’re here and taking the next step, trying some things to see how it affects the setup. There’s definitely some room for improvement and some areas we’re not struggling with at all."

Lorenzo was fastest on the first day but today he settled for third quickest, which he put down to tiredness: "Today I was much more tired than yesterday so it was tough to finish with a good pace, but we managed it," he said. "We didn’t find any big improvements but we did find some small details. Tomorrow we hope to make one big step. We improved our lap times a lot in the morning but in the afternoon when it was even hotter we managed to go faster, which is very positive."

As for the new CRT (Claiming Rule Teams) teams, using production motorcycle engines in custom chassis, the new Avintia Racing Team and the Suter BMW team struggled to match the factory prototype bikes, though they made big improvements compared to the first day's testing.

Colin Edward's Suter BMW clocked a time of 2.05.603, which was well ahead of his 2.08.240 time of the day before. If the CRT teams can improve their setups throughout the year, they may be able to make an impact in 2012.