Pol Espargaro regained his Austrian GP form as he comfortably topped FP2 at the Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix.
The KTM racer led the way for most of the session, banging in an early flyer of 1:24.203 to head Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli across the opening half of FP2.
Alex Rins displaced Espargaro as the test entered its final third, before the KTM reappeared at the head of the timesheets heading into the final few minutes-Espargaro over three-tenths clear of anyone else.
He then trimmed even more time from his leading benchmark on his final flyer, posting the fastest lap of the weekend so far with a 1:23.628 to head LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami overnight by 0.266.
The Japanese ace just pipped Joan Mir’s Suzuki for the sessions runner-up position with his final tour, while Rins ultimately slipped back to fourth behind his team-mate by the time the session concluded.
Vinales completed the top five as the highest classified Yamaha machine, while Miguel Oliveira continued to prove Tech 3’s pedigree at the Red Bull Ring in sixth overall.
Morbidelli ended up seventh ahead of Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia, while Valentino Rossi improved in the dying moments of the session to lift himself from way outside the top ten to ninth ahead of Brad Binder on the second factory KTM RC16.
Iker lecuona looked set to join team-mate Oliveira in the top ten once again as he did in FP1, but was unable to improve sufficueintly late on and was consequently bumped down to 11th, just clear of the improving Alex Marquez.
Fabio Quartararo was a lowly 14th in FP2 having struggled to put together a decent tour during the test, the Petronas SRT pilot running through the Turn 4 gravel trap on two separate occasions during the session as he struggled to pull up his M1.
Andrea Dovizioso was another to not put in a strong single-lap effort, the Italian only 15th overnight-albeit leading the Ducati GP20 quartet with Michele Pirro, Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci following just behind down to 18th on the leaderboard.
| # | Rider | Team | Time | Gap / Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’23.638 | |
| 2 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 1’23.904 | 0.266 / 0.266 |
| 3 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’23.907 | 0.269 / 0.003 |
| 4 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’24.009 | 0.371 / 0.102 |
| 5 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’24.060 | 0.422 / 0.051 |
| 6 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’24.118 | 0.480 / 0.058 |
| 7 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’24.187 | 0.549 / 0.069 |
| 8 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’24.366 | 0.728 / 0.179 |
| 9 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’24.378 | 0.740 / 0.012 |
| 10 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’24.427 | 0.789 / 0.049 |
| 11 | Iker LECUONA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’24.429 | 0.791 / 0.002 |
| 12 | Alex MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’24.463 | 0.825 / 0.034 |
| 13 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1’24.560 | 0.922 / 0.097 |
| 14 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’24.643 | 1.005 / 0.083 |
| 15 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’24.774 | 1.136 / 0.131 |
| 16 | Michele PIRRO | Pramac Racing | 1’24.807 | 1.169 / 0.033 |
| 17 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | 1’24.925 | 1.287 / 0.118 |
| 18 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 1’24.985 | 1.347 / 0.060 |
| 19 | Bradley SMITH | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’25.025 | 1.387 / 0.040 |
| 20 | Stefan BRADL | Repsol Honda Team | 1’25.057 | 1.419 / 0.032 |
| 21 | Tito RABAT | Esponsorama Racing | 1’25.221 | 1.583 / 0.164 |
| Johann ZARCO | Esponsorama Racing |
