Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia put on another stunning MotoGP performance to claim Friday’s fastest FP2 time at Jerez.
Beating out a raft of dominant Yamaha’s and an equally impressive Aprilia, the Italian completed his fourth Friday of the season in the top-two, his second in charge, with last race rival, Fabio Quartararo continuing the battle in second place.
It was straight down to business as FP2 fired up in Jerez with the majority of the field heading out on both front and rear medium tyres. Yamaha again initially dominated across the top of the standings before Aleix Espargaro and Johann Zarco arrived to spoil the party.
Quartararo and Maverick Viñales hit back immediately to claim an early one-two with Stefan Bradl and Espargaro continuing to fight. Takaaki Nakagami was the next to set an early challenge as his LCR machine found fifth with Franky Morbidelli following the factory form to sit just 0.003s off the Frenchman in second.
Viñales picked up his pace after finding himself circulating in seventh, advancing to fourth with his sixth lap as Jack Miller, Bagnaia and Joan Mir headed Valentino Rossi on the fringes of the top-10.
Quartararo was back in charge after 10-minutes of track action thanks to the first 1’37 lap of the afternoon, before his former teammate, Morbidelli, bettered with two consecutive hot-laps - 1’37.704 now the time to beat.
The halfway stage saw Espargaro continue to battle the Yamaha trio for the fastest times with Marc Marquez settling in sixth, narrowly behind his previous stand-in, on his 10th attempt.
Nakagami and Alex Rins immediately demoted the eight-time world champion as the pair claimed fifth and sixth respectively before the Japanese rider advanced again, to second, next time around.
Bradl was the next to improve, as he progressed to fourth while Marquez remained in eighth as Zarco and Miller headed the final Repsol representative behind.
15-minutes to go and a furious Tito Rabat fell foul of turn 13 on a personal best lap, the fast crash leaving the Pramac replacement floundering in 20th with the Avintia rookies for company on either side with a subdued few minutes following as the pack returned to the pits.
The closing four minutes saw the times heat up as the field retuned to action, just three riders chasing not to run the soft rear as the battle for Q2 began. Miguel Oliveira was the first to pounce as he ht the top-three, before Quartararo claimed the fastest overall moments later.
Seven riders were running red pace as the timing screens lit up, Aleix Espargaro and Bagnaia taking their turn at the top of the standings with the Ducati holding a 1’37.209 with less than a minute to go.
The French-led Yamaha returned the charge in the closing seconds, falling a tenth shy of the GP-21’s effort as his team-mate fired the second M1 into fifth.
The session concluded with Bagnaia in control from Quartararo, Espargaro, Morbidelli and Viñales. Nakagami, Oliveira, Rins, Zarco and Brad Binder completing the all-important top-10 positions.
Bradl sat best of the rest in 11th with Miller, Mir, and Pol Espargaro for company with Luca Marini heading Marquez, Danilo Petrucci, and team-mate Enea Bastianini in the top-18. Lorenzo Savadori finished 19th ahead of a Castrol-liveried Alex Marquez with Rossi, Iker Lecuona and Rabat completing the standings.
