Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has increased his gap over the MotoGP opposition to more than seven-tenths of a second in the second free practice session today at Austin despite a last-corner crash as Britain’s Scott Redding grabbed fourth place with his penultimate lap.Marquez set a 2’04.034 on his 11th lap even though he lost the front of his RC213V as he tried to push the Michelin into the last corner. The Spaniard got straight back up and pushed the bike across the track and up pitlane in spite of marshals’ protestations.
The former champion was six-tenths of a second under his already fastest time of 2’04.560 but the crash put paid to that. Marquez managed five laps in the 2’04s with reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo the second most consistent with three 2’04s.
Andrea Iannone, who is trying to make up for his Argentina faux pas, grabbed second place with a 2’04.740 while Maverick Vinales stuck the Ecstar Suzuki in third and is only 0.004s behind the works Ducati after setting his quickest lap on his tenth.
The Italian managed three laps in the 2’04s while Vinales put in just the one as did Redding on the satellite Octo Desmosedici GP15. Lorenzo, meanwhile, ran wide and off the track twice in his early runs but recovered to set a 2’04.901 as his quickest.
Movistar Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi ended in sixth and 0.073s in arrears but his pace was in the low 2’05s. The Doctor did have one lap on a pole schedule but ran wide and it went away.
Loris Baz grabbed a tow from Lorenzo to take seventh place with a fastest of 2’05.190, one place ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who also messed up a pole-schedule lap, while Andrea Dovizioso got away with a big moment out of the last corner to end in ninth place.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow hopped up to tenth place with his final effort of a 2’05.393, one ahead of Hector Barbera who was in the same Lorenzo caravan as team-mate Baz but, unusually, didn’t take full of advantage.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, standing in for the injured Danilo Petrucci, took 12th place in front of the Espargaro brothers who were locked together again. Monster Yamaha’s Pol was 13th, Aleix 14th while Yonny Herndez bagged 15th.
Aspar Ducati team-mate Eugene Laverty set a 2’05.891 for 16th but then had a whopping front end crash at the same place as Crutchlow did last year. Fortunately, he was able to walk away. Bradley Smith isn’t having any fun and ended down in 19th.