Jorge Martin led a Ducati 1-2 at the end of Friday at the Circuit of the Americas, while Alex Rins starred for LCR Honda by posting the third best effort.
Brief rain showers throughout the afternoon prior to the final outing of the day threatened to curtail the expected battle for the automatic Q2 positions, though luckily the precipitation remained at bay and a fully-dry FP2 test resulted.
FP1 leader Luca Marini looked good to do the double after firing himself back to the head of the times in the closing stages having briefly been demoted by Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, though his best effort of 2:02.416s was not ultimately enough to end the day on top, with Martin instead banging in a 2:02.178s to lead FP2 for Pramac Ducati.
Reigning MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia popped himself up to second overall with a late effort of his own to end up just 0.063s of Martin, while Rins pulled out an impressive tour on his LCR-run Honda to move up to third – the next best RC213-V of Joan Mir only 12th.
VR46 Ducati’s Marini ended up shuffled back to fourth by close of play just ahead of Portuguese Grand Prix podium-man Alex Marquez, while Vinales fell back to sixth in the end.
Fabio Quartararo backed up his strong second-placed run in FP1 with seventh in the second session to secure a guaranteed pole position shootout spot for Yamaha, while Brad Binder showed decent pace for KTM in eighth.
Aleix Espargaro put aside his dislike for the American venue to grab ninth on the sister factory Aprilia entry, while Jack Miller will join team-mate Binder in heading straight to Q2 after completing the top ten.
MotoGP’s newest race victor Marco Bezzecchi will therefore have to head out in Q1 on Saturday having come just 0.037s away from breaching the top ten, the Italian narrowly edging Mir and the sister LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami.
Johann Zarco struggled on his Ducati to 14th ahead of the returning Miguel Oliveira, while Franco Morbidelli was also left with work to do as he languished only 16th, his rapid Argentinean form now seemingly in his rear-view mirror.
Michele Pirro ended Friday as the best-placed of the stand-in riders in 17th overall – the Ducati test rider lapping 1.5 seconds from the ultimate pace – while Honda’s Stefan Bradl and GasGas‘ Jonas Folger ended FP2 in 20th and 22nd respectively.
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