Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso put the soft-compound Bridgestone rear tyre to good use in the second MotoGP free practice at Motorland Aragon to edge ahead of reigning world champion Marc Marquez at the top of the timesheets.

Dovizioso’s 1’48.285 was just 0.043s quicker than the Repsol Honda man, who was circulating on the harder compound, and just half a second off the young Spaniard’s circuit best lap of 1’47.804 set last year in qualifying.

However, Marquez’s second run of laps were all faster than anyone on a hard tyre, which will be the race tyre for the fast men, which doesn’t bode well for the like of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

The pair are also a little under half a second ahead of Dani Pedrosa, on the second works RC213V, but he has been working on race setup and spent the entire 45 minute session on the harder tyre, setting his quickest on his 15th lap of 18.

Pedrosa was 0.013 faster than this morning quickest man Andrea Iannone, who put in a 1’48.847 but remained on the harder tyre as he used this morning. Aleix Espargaro bagged fifth place, jjst in front of brother Pol who was sitting in second for a majority of the session. The Monster Yamaha man finished nearly seven-tenths in arrears.

Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo finished in seventh with Stefan Bradl and Bradley Smith next along. Rossi lost his way in the second session, finishing in tenth place and a second off the pace - he is only one place and 00.61s faster than Cal Crutchlow’s now ageing Ducati.

It was something of a disaster for Scott Redding has he was unable to improve on his free practice one time and slipped behind Nicky Hayden on the timesheet to 19th place.

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