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Practice report

Mugello MotoGP: Crutchlow tops FP2, Vinales suffers big crash

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow beat Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso to set the pace in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, as MotoGP championship leader Maverick Vinales crashed.

Cal Crutchlow, Team LCR Honda

Cal Crutchlow, Team LCR Honda

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

While the morning’s first session at Mugello was incident-free, Vinales was one of three riders to come unstuck inside the opening 15 minutes.

Aprilia had the first two, with Aleix Espargaro and Sam Lowes both crashing in the space of two torrid minutes, a little over 10 minutes into the afternoon.

Vinales went down at Arrabbiata 2 shortly afterwards while second in the order, losing the front end of his factory Yamaha on the kerb turning in.

The Spaniard retreated to his enclave within the Yamaha truck when he returned to the paddock, and finally rejoined the session with 10 minutes remaining.

Focusing on the harder tyres, Vinales fell down the order from fifth and did not improve until his final lap and even then only fractionally.

He finished in 13th place, between teammate Valentino Rossi - nursing chest injuries from his motocross accident eight days ago - and Honda's Marc Marquez.

Like Vinales, reigning world champion Marquez opted not to use the soft rear tyre at all during the 45 minutes.

Vinales and then Alvaro Bautista led the way during the early stages, the Aspar Ducati rider then displaced by Dovizioso at the top with just over 20 minutes remaining.

FP1 pacesetter Dovizioso turned a 1m47.864s and then a 1m47.526s to sit 0.173 seconds clear of Honda’s Dani Pedrosa when riders started their new-tyre runs.

The first and ultimately only rider to lap faster than Dovizioso was Crutchlow with a 1m47.365s set with three minutes remaining.

Crutchlow finished 0.161s ahead of Dovizioso, while Tech 3 Yamaha rookies Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco improved late to finish third and fourth, ahead of Pedrosa.

Avintia Ducati's Hector Barbera took sixth, ahead of Bautista, Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone, Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro and Danilo Petrucci, whose Pramac Ducati stopped on track in the opening stages.

Jorge Lorenzo wound up 11th, 0.589s off the top spot, having improved on new tyres in his final run.

Of the Aprilia riders, Espargaro got back out inside the final 10 minutes and finished 16th - the last of the riders within one second of Crutchlow - four spots ahead of Lowes.

With his second bike sidelined by a fuel-pump problem, Lowes was not able to rejoin the session and finished with just five laps on the board. 

Practice results:

Pos.#DriverBikeTimeGap
1 35 united_kingdom Cal Crutchlow  Honda 1'47.365  
2 4 italy Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati 1'47.526 0.161
3 94 germany Jonas Folger  Yamaha 1'47.543 0.178
4 5 france Johann Zarco  Yamaha 1'47.685 0.320
5 26 spain Dani Pedrosa  Honda 1'47.699 0.334
6 8 spain Hector Barbera  Ducati 1'47.710 0.345
7 19 spain Alvaro Bautista  Ducati 1'47.728 0.363
8 29 italy Andrea Iannone  Suzuki 1'47.807 0.442
9 51 italy Michele Pirro  Ducati 1'47.883 0.518
10 9 italy Danilo Petrucci  Ducati 1'47.950 0.585
11 99 spain Jorge Lorenzo  Ducati 1'47.954 0.589
12 46 italy Valentino Rossi  Yamaha 1'48.000 0.635
13 25 spain Maverick Viñales  Yamaha 1'48.014 0.649
14 93 spain Marc Marquez  Honda 1'48.103 0.738
15 45 united_kingdom Scott Redding  Ducati 1'48.111 0.746
16 41 spain Aleix Espargaro  Aprilia 1'48.129 0.764
17 43 australia Jack Miller  Honda 1'48.560 1.195
18 53 spain Tito Rabat  Honda 1'48.664 1.299
19 76 france Loris Baz  Ducati 1'48.751 1.386
20 22 united_kingdom Sam Lowes  Aprilia 1'48.842 1.477
21 17 czech_republic Karel Abraham  Ducati 1'48.925 1.560
22 44 spain Pol Espargaro  KTM 1'49.524 2.159
23 38 united_kingdom Bradley Smith  KTM 1'49.640 2.275
24 50 france Sylvain Guintoli  Suzuki 1'50.054 2.689

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