Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has upped the pace in this afternoon’s second MotoGP free practice and led the pack by a second until Stefan Bradl cut the gap by 50 per cent in the last minutes.
Marquez put in 2’02.126 on his seventh lap of 16 and it took Bradl until his 14th lap of 18 to reduce the deficit, going round in 2’02.635 while Andrea Dovizioso continued his form from this morning and bagged third place with a 2’03.011.
Britain’s Scott Redding put in the performance of the session, first leaping into fifth place early on with a 2’04.060 and then, after slipping back, banging in a 2’03.333 to end just 1.2s behind Marquez on the woefully underpowered production Gresini Honda.
The Gloucestershire rider was only a little over a quarter of second behind Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha and just headed by Yonny Hernandez who put in a sterling performance on the year-old satellite Ducati to bag fifth by just 0.006s over Redding.
Valentino Rossi had a disastrous session and is mired down in 13th place, 1.8s off the pace and only one place ahead of Cal Crutchlow, who is a tenth slower than The Doctor. Rossi, howver, isn’t alone as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is only half a second quicker in 11th and just head of Pol Espargaro’s satellite YZR-M1. If it rains tomorrow morning, both the factory Yamahas will miss an automatic place in qualifying two while Dani Pedrosa, who continues to struggle in ninth, will just scrape in.
Leon Camier broke the 2’05s barrier in this afternoon’s session with a 2’04.928 and then slipped off unhurt at Brooklands with only a few minutes left to run. Michael Laverty ended in 20th with a 2’06.335.
