Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez topped the second free practice session at Le Mans this afternoon, using the soft compound Bridgestone go under his team-mate Dani Pedrosa’s existing lap record.
The Repsol Honda man put in a 1’33.452 towards the end of the session after having a lap cancelled early on for running off the track in the final double right hander but bounced back go top.
However, he was only seven one-thousandths of a second faster than Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone who put the extra-soft tyre and a tow from Dani Pedrosa to good use and bagged second place with a 1’33.459 but then immediately dropped back a second with his next lap.
Alvaro Bautista got his act together for third place and was two-tenths slower than Marquez while Bradley Smith recovered from his tumble this morning to go fourth on a 1’33.920 and end as top Yamaha.
Pedrosa, who did another long run to complement one from this morning, finished in fifth place and looks in good shape for the race which will be held at this time on Sunday. Stefan Bradl was sixth with a 1’34.040.
Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo also did a useful soft tyre run early in the session with seven laps in the 1’34s and a fastest of 1’34.054 while Andrea Dovizioso was only fractionally slower with a 1’34.117 on the soft tyre for eighth.
Aleix Espargaro put his Open class Yamaha in ninth, one ahead of Valentino Rossi whose last lap was a 1'34.498 to confirm tenth place with three runs of four laps.
Cal Crutchlow is struggling down in 13th place and only managed to claw his way under the 1’35s barrier with a 1’34.907, some eight tenths slower than Dovizioso while Scott Redding crashed unhurt early on and finished 17th.
Michael Laverty found 2.5s over the lunchbreak to end his day on a 1’36.742, 3.2s off the pace.
