Barcelona MotoGP: Lorenzo tops FP2 as Marquez crashes

Future Repsol Honda teammates Marquez and Lorenzo had traded the top spot several times in the opening minutes of FP2, the latter finally settling in the top spot with a 1m39.817s effort.

The pair remained the only riders to have dipped below 1m40s for most of the session, until Yamaha's Maverick Vinales fired in a 1m39.652s using fresh softs with five minutes left on the clock.

Vinales was soon surpassed by LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, who lapped just 0.002s slower than Valentino Rossi's FP1-topping effort – before Lorenzo smashed the Italian's weekend benchmark with a 1m38.930s.

He came up a tenth short of improving with his next effort, but held on to the top spot anyway – with Suzuki's Andrea Iannone slotting into second, 0.107s off.

Vinales improved to third place, heading Lorenzo's Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso, Crutchlow and Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco, who crashed at the Turn 5 left-hander almost immediately at the start of the session, recovered to finish seventh, with his teammate Hafizh Syahrin ninth, the duo split by works Honda rider Dani Pedrosa.

Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat was 10th ahead of Rossi, but the Yamaha rider is still on course to automatically progress to Q2 by virtue of his FP1 time.

But the same cannot be said for Marquez, 12th on combined Friday times after his fall at Turn 4 in the closing minutes of the session.

Other riders to crash were KTM's Pol Espargaro, Suzuki's Alex Rins, Aprilia's Scott Redding and Marc VDS Honda rookie Franco Morbidelli.

Mika Kallio led the way for KTM in 13th on the prototype RC16, while Aleix Espargaro was the top Aprilia in a lowly 19th, his session punctuated by an on-track quarrel with Aprilia-bound Iannone after the pair ran each other off the road at Turn 1.

Session results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	17	1'38.930
2	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	20	1'39.037	0.107
3	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	20	1'39.422	0.492
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	18	1'39.443	0.513
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	18	1'39.458	0.528
6	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	20	1'39.619	0.689
7	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	18	1'39.633	0.703
8	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	21	1'39.655	0.725
9	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	20	1'39.782	0.852
10	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	21	1'39.851	0.921
11	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	20	1'39.989	1.059
12	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	17	1'39.990	1.060
13	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	21	1'40.004	1.074
14	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	21	1'40.265	1.335
15	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	18	1'40.309	1.379
16	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	20	1'40.399	1.469
17	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	20	1'40.450	1.520
18	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	17	1'40.508	1.578
19	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	17	1'40.541	1.611
20	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	19	1'40.608	1.678
21	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	19	1'40.697	1.767
22	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	17	1'40.728	1.798
23	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	18	1'40.815	1.885
24	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	20	1'40.975	2.045
25	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	18	1'41.229	2.299
26	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	19	1'41.361	2.431