Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez topped the second free practice session at Brno this afternoon despite crashing for the second time today and he was joined on the deck by Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Bradley Smith, Andrea Dovizioso and Mike Di Meglio.
Marquez tipped off into the final left-right flick this morning and that is where both Pedrosa and Rossi went down. Pedrosa’s RC213V looked like it went bang as he exited the left and spat him off, then Rossi then lost the front into the same corner, seeming mystified as to why, and fluid on the track would be the answer. The fragile Spaniard has a suspected broken bone in his foot.
Marquez himself lost the front into turn seven on his final run in the second session but his third lap was enough to take top spot but only just from Jorge Lorenzo. The Repsol man put in a 1’56.513 but he was just 0.076 in front of hid compatriot, both running medium rears before changing to the harder option.
Andrea Iannone was again on the pace, occupying third place with a 1’56.750, some 0.324s in front of Rossi who recovered from his crash to put in a 1’57.074 after switching to the hard rear for longevity testing. Dovizioso’s third lap was enough for fifth place before he went down at turn five but Pol Espargaro just pipped him by a tenth of a second at the same time as his Monster Yamaha team-mate Bradley Smith crashed.
Smith was at the end of a long run on hard tyres front and rear, and had set a best of 1’57.494 on his 14th lap before slipping off at the same place as Dovizioso. Cal Crutchlow nipped in front of Smith to grab ninth place for the session on a 1’57.229 while Yonny Hernandez completed the top ten ahead of Pramac Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci.
Scott Redding started brightly with a 1’57.860 which was enough for tenth on his second lap and then concentrated on his race distance, slipping back to 14th behind Hector Barbera. Stefan Bradl found some pace over lunch to bag 15th place while Jack Miller took charge in the Open Honda battle, dropping his laptime to 1’58.512. Eugene Laverty ended in 21st place, one ahead of Di Meglio, who crashed at turn three.
Bridgestone are now in consultation with riders about the effect of the high track temperatures.
