Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo obliterated the opposition in the second MotoGP free practice session at Motorland Aragon this afternoon, going almost seven-tenths of a second faster than team-mate Valentino Rossi while Britain’s Bradley Smith completed a Yamaha top-three lock out.
Lorenzo used a medium front and rear Bridgestone combination to set this 1’47.517 and was the only rider to break the 1’48s barrier. The Mallorcan is only four-tenths short of Marc Marquez’ pole time from last year and the Repsol Honda man ended his session behind team-mate Dani Pedrosa and 0.884s off the pace.
However, if Lorenzo’s one-lap speed is impressive, then his pace is even more so. The former champion had two laps in the 1’47s and seven laps in the 1’48 on two separate tyre combinations. Rossi had four in the 1’48s while Smith, who set his best time at the end of a long run, also has four in the 1’48s.
Pedrosa started slowly but has the same kind of pace as the slower of the Yamahas but Marquez is closer to Lorenzo than the rest with seven laps in the 1’48s and a best of 1’48.401, set on his tenths lap of 19 using a hard rear, medium front combination.
Smith’s Monster Yamaha team-mate Pol Espargaro charged into sixth place on his 15th lap of 18 and was 0.079s quicker than works Suzuki mounted brother Aleix, who had a small tantrum on his last fast lap when he believed Aprilia’s Stefan Bradl got in the way.
Andrea Dovizioso pulled a lap from nowhere with the soft-option rear to bag eighth with injured team-mate Andrea Iannone while Danilo Petrucci completed the top ten and automatic qualifying two men.
Scott Redding slipped back to 12th place behind Yonny Hernandez but still in front of Cal Crutchlow. Hector Barbera is one place behind the Givi Honda man in 14th while Eugene Laverty ended in 18th place despite finding almost half a second over lunch.
