Reigning MotoGP World champion and 2014 points leader Marc Marque resumed normal service in the second free practice session at Jerez today, topping the timesheets but was chased hard by this morning’s quickest man Aleix Espargaro.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez stuck in a banker lap of 1’39.757 right at the start of the period while Espargaro, on the Open class Forward Yamaha, took advantage of his soft rear tyre to leap into second place with his final run to lap just two tenths slower but the Spaniard ended the day quickest on combined times.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, also on the soft rear, popped into third with his 15th lap of 19 while Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi ended the second session in fourth but was on the same harder option as Marquez, finishing less than four-tenths off the pace.
Jorge Lorenzo, on the second works Yamaha, was 0.008s behind The Doctor with Dani Pedrosa in sixth. Neither of those bettered their first session times but remain in second and fourth on the combined sheet while Rossi is in sixth behind Dovizioso.
Interestingly, Sunday’s race will be held at around the same time as free practice two and the works bikes are very evenly matched for pace on their harder option tyre.
His single 1’39s lap aside, Marquez put in ten laps in the 1’40s bracket. Rossi did the same number while Lorenzo put in one less than the Italian as did Pedrosa, so it’s too close to call at the moment.
Further down the combined sheet, Alvaro Bautista finished in seventh, ahead of Stefan Bradl and Yonny Hernandez and none were able to better their session one times while Andrea Iannone also fended off Bradley Smith.
The British rider walked away from a whopping highside at turn 11 after setting his personal best time in the first two sectors but his Monster Yamaha team have a lot of repairs to do this evening.
Cal Crutchlow ended his day in 18th, one place ahead of Scott Redding while Michael Laverty found 1.1s in the lunch break to end on a 1'41.914 laptime.
