Maverick Vinales shot to the head of the times at the conclusion of second MotoGP practice at Misano, knocking four-tenths from Fabio Quartararo’s FP1 benchmark despite hotter conditions.
Marc Marquez wasted no time to lead the times as the second and final MotoGP session of the day got underway, posting a 1:33.523 that beat his FP1 best by just 0.006.
He quickly shaved a further few tenths from his lap to secure a 1:33.171, just 0.018 slower than Quartararo’s FP1 time.
With the track temperature rising from the mid-teens in FP1 to well into the 40’s this afternoon, times were expected to be significantly slower, and with the clock running down further improvements were not expected.
Yamaha men Vinales and Quartararo decided to go off script though, as first the Spaniard banged in a storming 1:32.775 to go 0.396 faster than Marquez-the first sub-33 lap of the weekend so far- before Quartararo managed a lap just 0.057 slower seconds later.
This confirmed the pair in the top two positions, while Marquez was unable to improve and had to settle for third fastest.
Valentino Rossi was fourth quickest, despite being 0.695 off the pace of his team-mate, while Franco Morbidelli made sure that all four Yamaha machines made an appearance in the top five.
Pol Espargaro was an impressive sixth on his KTM RC16 ahead of the fastest Ducati of Danilo Petrucci, with Andrea Dovizioso following close behind in eighth-albeit the first man more than a second in arrears of Vinales’ time.
British GP winner Alex Rins brought his Suzuki into the top ten for the first time this weekend in ninth, while Cal Crutchlow rounded out the top ten for LCR Honda.
Jorge Lorenzo set an encouraging time despite being only enough for 17th on the timesheets, the Mallorcan just 1.364 away from the session leading effort.
Discussion about this post