Aleix Espargaro led an Aprilia 1-2 in second practice at Jerez, while series leader Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo all missed out on the top ten.
Improvements on the times posted during the morning’s P1 outing looked tough as the expected temperature increases materialised, making the track slicker than the opening session of the day.
A brief red flag stoppage early on also complicated things for the riders, a pause needed to replace the air fences on the outside of Turn 13 following a crash for Honda stand-in Iker Lecuona.
Johann Zarco was the first man to lap below the 1:38 bracket in P2 as the session began to wind down, though Maverick Vinales managed to fire in a 1:36.899s to move himself up to third in the combined times.
All of a sudden improvements were coming thick and fast despite the sub-optimal track conditions, with Aleix Espargaro escaping a couple of yellow flag moments – caused by Honda riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir – to bang in the fastest time of the weekend so far with a 1:36.708s to lead the way into Saturday.
Factory Aprilia team-mate Vinales improved once again to lift himself up to second overall, while KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa’s FP1 leading time was enough to leave him third, guaranteeing him a Q2 appearance in his first event in two years.
Jorge Martin improved to take fourth in the combined standings on his Pramac Ducati ahead of the second factory KTM of Jack Miller, while Johann Zarco and Miguel Oliveira managed to find solid gains late on to rise to sixth and seventh respectively.
Alex Marquez ended up eighth on his Gresini Ducati, while LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini narrowly held onto the final two automatic Q2 berths despite not improving on their FP1 gambits.
Series leader Bezzecchi came just over a tenth-of-a-second away from displacing his team-mate from the top ten despite suffering a monstrous engine blow up on his primary Desmosedici at around the half-way mark, the Italian’s best effort at the end leaving him 12th just ahead of reigning MotoGP world champion Bagnaia in 13th.
Yamaha also struggled to make progress as its riders ended up only 16th and 17th, Quartararo getting the better of team-mate Morbidelli despite a mistake on his very final lap that could have seen him squeak into the top ten.
Aside from Nakagami it remained a tough day for Honda, with Mir ending up 18th overall off the back of two separate crashes during Q2, while Lecuona completed his first day riding an RC213-V in 24th and last – the Andorran left with an uphill battle to climb following his early crash.
