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Practice report

Valencia MotoGP: Quartararo tops FP2 as Rossi crashes again

Fabio Quartararo topped FP2 to end Friday’s MotoGP practice for the Valencia Grand Prix fastest of all, while Yamaha stablemate Valentino Rossi crashed again.

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Petronas SRT rider Quartararo, already fastest in FP1, snatched first place away from works Yamaha man Maverick Vinales in the closing stages to lead the field on Friday by 0.148 seconds.

The early stages of Friday’s second session were frantic, with top spot changing hands a number of times over just a handful of laps.

Rossi set the initial pace with a 1m33.055s, before Marc Marquez demoted him with a 1m32.102s just seconds later.

FP1 runner-up Jack Miller soon deposed Marquez by 0.015s, before Vinales put Yamaha back on top with a 1m31.90ss after just six minutes of the session.

Marquez’s next effort of 1m30.974s, however, proved to be the fastest of the day so far and lifted him close to a second clear of the field – just as he did in the early stages of FP1.

Rossi’s session was soon once again interrupted by a crash, this time at the Turn 10 right-hander that had caught Avintia’s Karel Abraham out this morning.

Marquez’s laptime sat as the benchmark for some time, with Vinales cutting his advantage just 0.381s.

As the session entered its closing seven minutes, Suzuki’s Joan Mir became the first to threaten Marquez’s place atop the timesheets, though would miss out by just over three tenths in second.

Miller took a tumble at exiting the Mick Doohan left with 15 minutes remaining, valiantly trying to right himself with his elbow before conceding defeat.

Undeterred by this, he challenged Marquez once back out on track and got to within 0.026s of the Honda rider, before Vinales finally usurped him with a 1m30.883s in the closing moments.

Quartararo trailed by 0.081s, but hooked up his penultimate tour to post a 1m30.735s which would not be bettered come the chequered flag.

Marquez wound up third on the Honda, 0.239s down on Quartararo, while Miller and the second SRT bike of Franco Morbidelli completed the top five.

Alex Rins headed Suzuki teammate Mir in sixth, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro beat Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and LCR’s Johann Zarco to eighth.

Dovizioso’s session wasn’t without incident, as a fluid leak in the second half of the outing from the front of his bike forced him back to pitlane.

Rossi was shuffled down to 14th following his crash, while rookie Iker Lecuona found well over a second in FP2 on the Tech3 KTM and improved to a 1m33.114s – though was still last of the 23-strong field.

Session results

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Time Gap
1 20 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 23 1'30.735
2 12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 24 1'30.883 0.148
3 93 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 21 1'30.974 0.239
4 43 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 19 1'31.000 0.265
5 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 23 1'31.199 0.464
6 42 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 22 1'31.230 0.495
7 36 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 22 1'31.280 0.545
8 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 17 1'31.305 0.570
9 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 17 1'31.351 0.616
10 5 France Johann Zarco
Honda 22 1'31.369 0.634
11 35 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Honda 20 1'31.433 0.698
12 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 19 1'31.455 0.720
13 51 Italy Michele Pirro
Ducati 17 1'31.765 1.030
14 46 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 15 1'31.775 1.040
15 63 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 19 1'31.868 1.133
16 99 Spain Jorge Lorenzo
Honda 17 1'31.880 1.145
17 44 Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 19 1'31.905 1.170
18 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 21 1'32.159 1.424
19 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham
Ducati 19 1'32.278 1.543
20 82 Finland Mika Kallio
KTM 19 1'32.467 1.732
21 29 Italy Andrea Iannone
Aprilia 18 1'32.568 1.833
22 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 20 1'32.887 2.152
23 27 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 21 1'33.114 2.379

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