Danilo Petrucci took to the top in the closing minutes of FP2 from Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso.
Marc Marquez led the majority of the session, however an unfortunate crash at turn fifteen during the last ten minutes scuppered his chances of retaining the top spot. He lost around a minute of track time and managed to get back out on his second bike, but couldn’t push himself back up, leaving him ending the session in fifth.
Petrucci came from what felt like nowhere to take over Marquez’s spot, and was then followed by Dani Pedrosa, Vinales and Dovizioso. Michele Pirro made another surprise appearance into the top ten, with the other factory Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo slotting in just behind.
Tito Rabat has been slowly improving his performance during the second half of the season, and it showed today as he finished the session in tenth. With a ride secured for next year with the Reale Avintia Ducati team, his confidence has been boosted and it’ll show as we head into the race on Sunday.
Marquez wasn’t the only crash of FP2. Sam Lowes went down in the very early stages at turn two, with Jack Miller almost crashing in sympathy on the same corner just seconds later. Whether Lowes dropped oil on the track remains to be seen, but turn two didn’t claim any more riders for the rest of the session. Cal Crutchlow also went down at turn fifteen but was unhurt, and got back on track shortly after. Alex Rins suffered his second free practice crash, this time at turn one but he too was unhurt.
Top ten:
1. Danilo Petrucci, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1:33.231
2. Maverick Vinales, Movistar Yamaha +0.005
3. Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team +0.063
4. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team +0.115
5. Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team +0.244
6. Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda +0.314
7. Michele Pirro, Ducati Team +0.360
8. Jorge Lorenzo, Ducati Team +0.383
9. Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki Ecstar +0.509
10. Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS +0.589
Full results at motogp.com
