Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales squeezed reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez into second place on overall Friday practice timesheet which will more than likely provide the seeding for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Marquez led for most of the second session and was on for a sheet-topping lap but a mistake by the Repsol Honda man meant he had to slow up and it meant Vinales’ 2’03’857 put him in the driving seat after his team tinkered with his bike’s ride height over lunch.

But it was disaster for the factory Ducati team as both Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci missed out on a top-ten spot and thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow morning mean they may well have missed a qualifying one spot.

No such problems for Valentino Rossi who, like Vinales, used soft Michelins all round to put himself third overall with a 2'04.003 to finish 0.146s down on his Monster Yamaha team-mate.

Australian Jack Miller upheld Ducati's honour with a 2'04.005 for fourth place after following Marquez which was enough to see off best mate Cal Crutchlow.

The LCR Honda man, like Marquez, went medium/soft for the 10-minute time attack and he finished with a 2'04.118.

Alex Rins found a lot of time over the lunch break to raise his game to a 2'04.353 while Pol Espargaro put in a lap from the gods to stick the works KTM in seventh.

Rossi protege Franco Morbidelli put his Petronas Yamaha in eighth with Fabio Quatararo, on the second Petronas Yamaha, right behind him, giving the Iwata factory four bikes in the top ten.

Fellow rookie Pecco Bagnaia was equally impressive on the Pramac Desmosedici GP18, taking probably the last Q2 spot with Dovizioso behind him.

Ecstar Suzuki rookie Joan Mir got as high as eighth in the final ten minutes but slipped back to 12th, one ahead of Petrucci.

Aleix Espargaro slid from inside the top ten to 14th with Taka Nakagami in 15th. Jorge Lorenzo is having another disaster, sitting in 16th, one in front of Johann Zarco.

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