Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa led a Honda clean sweep of the top three places in this afternoon’s second MotoGP free practice, using Michelin’s medium tyres all round to set a 1’48.429 to beat team-mate Marc Marquez by 0.065s with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow in third a further 0.016s back.
The three RC213Vs all used different rubber combinations to set their times. Marquez used a medium front and a hard rear while LCR’s Crutchlow, who is struggling to stop his bike into turn one, put in the aysmmetric front on his last run and paired that with a medium rear for his 1’48.510.
Valentino Rossi occupied fourth place, lapping with the medium rear, and finished a quarter of a second behind Pedrosa while it was a a tyre testing session for Movistar Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo who cycled through two different fronts before going back to the soft front he used this morning to set the seventh-fastest time.
Marquez put in a fast run of laps at the end of the session with five in the 1’48s compared to just two for Pedrosa. Crutchlow also managed two while Rossi did three but interrupted by a slow lap.
In between Rossi and Lorenzo, Pol Espargaro bounced back from a turn-two crash on his Monster Yamaha to end in fifth on a 1’48.749 while Maverick Vinales wasn’t able to capitalise on a final run with medium tyres all round and finished in sixth, a little under half a second off the pace.
Hector Barbera set a 1’48.970 to end just behind Jorge Lorenzo with Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso completing the top ten. Aleix Espargaro was also a victim of turn two, just seconds after his brother, but he came back to finish in 11th. Yonny Hernandez was the first of turn two’s victims, crashing at the start of the session, but he came back to end in 12th.
Stefan Bradl and Aprilia team-mate Alvaro Bautista are locked together in 13th and 14th with Michele Pirro - standing in for Andrea Iannone - in 15th. Scott Redding is down in 16th, one ahead of Eugene Laverty, also a crasher at turn two, who was teh fastest through the speed trap at 208mph. Alex Lowes finished in 20th, going down right at the end of the session but staying ahead of Nicky Hayden in 21st. The American found a second in the second session and ended only 2.5s off the pace on his first day.
Top speeds:
50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Pull & Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 335.4
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 333.9
51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 333.6
26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 333.4
93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 332.7
25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 332.3
8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing DUCATI 332.2
9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI 331.8
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 330.2
35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda HONDA 329.2
68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Pull & Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 329.2
53 Tito RABAT SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 328.5
44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 328.4
19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 328.2
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 328.1
45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI 327.4
69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 327.3
41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 327.0
6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 326.7
76 Loris BAZ FRA Avintia Racing DUCATI 323.6
22 Alex LOWES GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 323.1
