Jerez MotoGP: Crutchlow tops FP2, Marquez crashes

Marquez led most of the session, but elected not to use a soft rear tyre in the closing minutes and then crashed at the Dry Sac right-hander.

Having missed out on the top spot in first practice by just 0.007s, Marquez took until his third flying lap to surpass Dovizioso's FP1 benchmark early on, by virtue of a 1m39.028s lap.

He followed that up with a 1m38.863s, and ended the run leading a Honda 1-2-3, ahead of works teammate Dani Pedrosa and Crutchlow.

It took another half an hour before another rider, Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco, put on new tyres to join Marquez in the sub-1m39s margin - and this was immediately followed by Crutchlow doing likewise to claim the top spot with a 1m38.749s effort.

Zarco then went half a tenth quicker than the LCR man, only for Crutchlow to immediately reclaim first place on a 1m38.614s.

But his lead was still under threat from Pedrosa, who, after coming up just 0.028s short of Crutchlow on his penultimate effort, was up on the Briton's lap after three sectors at the chequered flag – only to lose out in the end.

Zarco settled for third, 0.004s ahead of Suzuki's Andrea Iannone, with the top four split by less than a tenth.

Despite crashing, Marquez wound up in fifth, a quarter of a second off the pace but around two tenths up on the Ducati trio of Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Pramac privateer Jack Miller.

Yamaha works riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales made up the top 10, but the latter is not currently on course to claim an automatic Q2 spot – as his time was slower than the FP1 effort of KTM's Pol Espargaro.

Session results

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	20	1'38.614
2	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	20	1'38.642	0.028
3	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	20	1'38.705	0.091
4	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	21	1'38.709	0.095
5	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	19	1'38.863	0.249
6	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	20	1'39.068	0.454
7	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	19	1'39.076	0.462
8	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	17	1'39.102	0.488
9	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	19	1'39.248	0.634
10	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	19	1'39.514	0.900
11	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	19	1'39.541	0.927
12	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	19	1'39.541	0.927
13	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	21	1'39.575	0.961
14	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	19	1'39.661	1.047
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	21	1'39.694	1.080
16	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	17	1'39.723	1.109
17	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	24	1'39.888	1.274
18	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	19	1'39.948	1.334
19	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	18	1'39.951	1.337
20	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	17	1'39.969	1.355
21	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	15	1'40.003	1.389
22	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	17	1'40.241	1.627
23	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	19	1'40.488	1.874
24	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	15	1'40.536	1.922
25	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	17	1'40.663	2.049