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Practice report

Motegi MotoGP: Quartararo beats Vinales in FP2

Petronas Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo set the pace in the Friday afternoon MotoGP practice session at Motegi, the Frenchman going fastest by over three tenths.

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Newly-crowned champion Marc Marquez's FP2 programme was slightly delayed because his team mistakenly put on a hard rear tyre at the start of the session, but he swiftly took the lead when he rejoined with a soft rear.

He held a sizeable gap in the first half of the session before Ducati factory rider Danilo Petrucci managed to go slightly faster with a 1m45.686s.

Petrucci stayed ahead until the dying stages when first his teammate Andrea Dovizioso outpaced him by seven hundredths, before Maverick Vinales went half a second quicker.

But then Vinales's top time was smashed by Quartararo as the session ended, the Frenchman setting a 1m44.764s before going off into the gravel at Turn 1.

Behind Vinales and Marquez, Dovizioso was the top Ducati in fourth but over six tenths slower than Quartararo.

Vinales' teammate Valentino Rossi left his fast lap dangerously late and had time for a single flyer but was able to snatch fifth, with Franco Morbidelli bringing a fourth Yamaha into the top six.

Pramac's Jack Miller led the works Ducati of Petrucci in seventh, despite the former's session ending in a crash at Turn 9.

Joan Mir was ninth as both he and 11th-placed Suzuki teammate Alex Rins, who doesn't have an automatic Q2 spot at the moment, had off-track excursions but stayed on their respective bikes.

Aleix Espargaro put his Aprilia 10th, beating Rins by 0.009s.

Marquez was the only Honda in the top 10 with Cal Crutchlow, Takaaki Nakagami and Jorge Lorenzo only taking 12th, 15th and 17th respectively.

Tech 3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira suffered a fast crash at Turn 12, the Portuguese rider winded but able to walk away from the accident.

Session results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 20 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 01'44.764
2 12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 01'45.085 00.321
3 93 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 01'45.100 00.336
4 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 01'45.414 00.650
5 46 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 01'45.466 00.702
6 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 01'45.562 00.798
7 43 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 01'45.577 00.813
8 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 01'45.619 00.855
9 36 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 01'45.641 00.877
10 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 01'45.721 00.957
11 42 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 01'45.730 00.966
12 35 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Honda 01'45.804 01.040
13 44 Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 01'46.020 01.256
14 63 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 01'46.330 01.566
15 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 01'46.557 01.793
16 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham
Ducati 01'46.576 01.812
17 99 Spain Jorge Lorenzo
Honda 01'46.661 01.897
18 88 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 01'46.800 02.036
19 50 France Sylvain Guintoli
Suzuki 01'46.803 02.039
20 29 Italy Andrea Iannone
Aprilia 01'46.969 02.205
21 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 01'47.158 02.394
22 82 Finland Mika Kallio
KTM 01'47.312 02.548
23 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 01'47.974 03.210

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