Maverick Vinales led home fellow Yamaha men Valentino Rossi and Fabio Quartararo at the conclusion of FP2 at Aragon, the trio covered by just over a tenth of a second.
FP1 pace-setter Marc Marquez looked to be well on the way to keeping himself at the head of the times as the end of the second 45-minute session dawned, the Spaniard sitting on a 1:48.204-a time 1.4 slower than his FP1 effort.
With rain expected early tomorrow morning though it was ever more important to post a good time in order to try and progress directly to Q2 in qualifying, and with this in mind unsurprisingly everyone went out for a final attacking run.
Vinales was the first to shoot past Marquez, shaving just under two tenths from the championship leader’s benchmark with a 1:48.014.
Both team-mate Rossi and Petronas SRT’s Quartararo looked good to pip Vinales to the top spot on teir respective laps, but both struggled to match his blistering final sector and slotted into second and third respectively.
Marquez decided to continue his race run rather than chase a time improvement, with his earlier time still enough for fourth at the flag-just 0.190 from the top.
This session didn’t go quite as smoothly for the five-time premier class champ though, as he suffered a relatively minor spill at Turn 8 mid-way through the session.
He tucked the front of his Honda into the tight corkscrew section, going down and sliding into the gravel, but continued soon after.
Pol Espargaro again impressed as he wheeled his KTM RC16 to the fifth fastest time just ahead of Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller.
Cal Crutchlow flew the flag for LCR Honda in seventh ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, while Joan Mir again was quickest Suzuki in ninth.
Aleix Espargaro managed an encouraging tenth on his Aprilia at a circuit he and his RS-GP have traditionally excelled around, meaning he is the last man provisionally heading straight for Q2 tomorrow.
Missing out for now is the second GSX-RR of Alex Rins in 11th, who was followed closely by the second factory Ducati of Danilo Petrucci in 12th.
Mika Kallio improved slightly in this session to post the 17th quickest time just ahead of fellow KTM man Miguel Oliveira, while Jorge Lorenzo managed to just breach the top 20 for Repsol Honda.
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