The rotovibrational dynamics excited by optical filamentation in molecular gases is studied in the temporal domain. Two time-delayed replicas of the same laser pulse have been used to generate a first filament, for the rotovibrational excitation of the sample, and a second collinear filament probing the Raman dynamics. The Fermi doublet structure in CO(2) as well as the very fast stretching mode of H(2) were clearly resolved. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America