Reigning MotoGP world champ elect Marc Marquez stormed to the top of the Aragon free practice timesheets in the second session, switching to a soft rear to put in a 1’47.382 but he was chased hard by 2019 team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, whose last-ditch effort saw him slide into second place.
Marquez, like everyone else, spent most of the session on the hard rear as track temperatures soared and showed plenty of pace but Lorenzo was outside of the top ten on the same rubber, only finding pace with the softest-available compound.
Andrea Dovizoso, this morning fastest man, finished in third with a soft rear but is almost half a second off Marquez’ pace. The Italian was able to stay ahead of Britain’s Cal Crutchlow who got over an early handbags session with Andrea Iannone to end in fourth with the Ecstar Suzuki man in fifth.
Danilo Petrucci slipped back to sixth from second this morning but is still well inside the top ten but Pramac Ducati team-mate Jack Miller was the session's biggest loser, going from fourth to 12th for the day.
Dani Pedrosa took advantage of the 43° track temperature to slip into seventh place overall while Alvaro Bautista passed almost unnoticed into eighth, just ahead of the two Movistar Yamahas. Valentino Rossi bagged eighth with six minutes to go but was demoted by Bautista's lap.
Then, Franco Morbdelli looked like he would push Rossi down another place but just missed, taking tenth until Maverick Vinales sealed the final provisonal Q2 spot with a 1'48.552, some 1.2s behind Marquez, using a longer bike than he did this morning to help with weight distribution.
The Espargaros were locked together again in 13th and 14th behind Miller with Bradley Smith in 15th place. Johann Zarco is struggling in 17th with Scott Redding 20th. Jordi Torres knocked almost two seconds off his time from this morning and finished 3.7s off the pace.
