Forward NGM’s Aleix Espargaro continues to top the MotoGP free practice timesheets, using the soft tyre option to go quickest in session two ahead of the works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso by three-tenths of a second.
But it is still disaster for the Movistar Yamahas, who have updated versions of Espargaro’s hardware, with Valentino Rossi in ninth place and a second off the pace while team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who spent most of the 45 minutes shaking his head and having small tantrums, a further two tenths back.
With flames caused by unburnt fuel spitting out of the back of his Yamaha, Espargaro went underneath Casey Stoner’s 2008 lap record with a run of laps that ended with a 1’54.989 while Dovizioso managed a 1’55.320, also on the soft tyre.
Dani Pedrosa improved from yesterday to take fourth place, demoted late on by a 1’55.446 from Alvaro Bautista, with team-mate Marc Marquez in fifth after surviving a big, two-wheel slide moment. The reigning champion is six-tenths off the pace but found a second overnight and is still contending with his broken leg.
Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith ended in sixth place after a quiet session where he improved by two tenths. LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl, who is under pressure from Honda to fix his front-end problems, was seventh.
Pol Espargaro managed to crash twice, the first a real egg-beater at turn nine, but was still fractionally faster than yesterday while Rossi, also quicker than yesterday, was ninth with Andrea Iannone tenth.
Lorenzo was less than a tenth ahead of Colin Edwards in 11th place while Nicky Hayden parked his production Honda in 13th but was slower than yesterday. Cal Crutchlow was 14th and 1.3s slower than Dovizioso but his tyre choices over the session aren’t known.
Scott Redding improved by 1.2s to take 16th place while Michael Laverty overcame an early problem, and the software dramas of yesterday, to post a 1’59.646.
