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Practice report

Red Bull Ring MotoGP: Marquez beats Vinales by 0.066s in FP2

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez was quickest in the second Friday practice session at the Red Bull Ring, beating Maverick Vinales by 0.066s.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Having finished second in the opening practice, Marquez equipped a new soft rear tyre and posted the first sub-1m24s effort of the weekend less than 10 minutes into the session.

No other rider came within even four tenths of Marquez’s 1m23.916s for the next half-hour, until satellite Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami moved up to second place, 0.382s off.

Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo then snatched second place from Nakagami, but the Japanese rider was quicker again on his next attempt, coming up 0.155s short of his Honda stablemate Marquez’s effort.

With less than a minute left on the clock, Vinales lapped within 0.066s of Marquez as the second rider below 1m24s – but as the chequered flag flew, Marquez would ultimately go unmatched, despite himself forgoing a customary late run on a fresh rear tyre.

Nakagami and Quartararo made up the top four, with Pramac rider Jack Miller ending the day as the fastest of the Ducatis, 0.392s off the pace in fifth.

Miguel Oliveira was a standout sixth for Tech 3 KTM, four places up on Pol Espargaro, with both currently on course to automatically make Q2 at the manufacturer’s home race.

Danilo Petrucci spent most of the session in second place but did not improve on his final run, ending up seventh. Also failing to improve late on was his works Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso, the Italian crashing out at Turn 3 and having to settle for ninth.

A last-gasp flyer from LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow put him between the two Ducatis, and relegated Valentino Rossi out of the combined practice top 10. Rossi and 12th-placed Alex Rins, the sole Suzuki representative this weekend, are two riders who thus need to improve in FP3 if they are to progress to Q2 directly.

Oliveira’s Tech 3 teammate Hafizh Syahrin was cleared to resume competing this weekend after his nasty FP1 crash. The Malaysian ended up 21st and last in FP2, but was just 1.353s off the pace.

Session results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 93 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 1'23.916
2 12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1'23.982 0.066
3 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'24.071 0.155
4 20 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'24.153 0.237
5 43 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 1'24.308 0.392
6 88 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'24.326 0.410
7 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'24.330 0.414
8 35 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Honda 1'24.336 0.420
9 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 1'24.411 0.495
10 44 Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 1'24.418 0.502
11 46 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1'24.532 0.616
12 42 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 1'24.540 0.624
13 63 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'24.598 0.682
14 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 1'24.630 0.714
15 6 Germany Stefan Bradl
Honda 1'24.755 0.839
16 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'24.865 0.949
17 5 France Johann Zarco
KTM 1'24.948 1.032
18 29 Italy Andrea Iannone
Aprilia 1'25.003 1.087
19 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham
Ducati 1'25.139 1.223
20 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'25.233 1.317
21 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 1'25.269 1.353

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