Reigning MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia topped the timesheets in the second practice session at Jerez on Friday afternoon, whilst a late crash saw KTM’s Brad Binder narrowly miss out on the top-10 and an automatic place in Saturday’s Q2 qualifying session.
Bagnaia’s 1:36.025s laptime was just over a tenth clear of second-placed Maverick Vinales aboard his Aprilia (1:36.125), with Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez third with a 1:36.168s time.
As ever, the second practice session of the weekend was of paramount importance with the first half predominantly reserved for race runs before the closing stages saw a flurry of fast times put on the board as riders fought to book their slot in tomorrow’s Q2 qualifying session.
There was an early off for Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez, a classic low side at the tight Turn 13 left-hander.
Luckily for the Spaniard, he could run back into pit road and regroup for the remainder of the session.
Heroic winner last time out in Austin, Texas, Vinales grabbed a little too much inside kerb at Turn 1 and had a slow low-side of his own, but with no damage done he was able to tour back around to the pits and continue his practice programme.
Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha desperately need as much track time as possible to turn the Japanese marque’s fortunes around.
Still, sadly for the Frenchman, he had an off at the fast Turn 7 corner and walked away to the infield with 35 minutes of the session remaining.
Alex Marquez, fastest in opening practice, was the next to tumble with a bounce of the front tyre in the last phase of braking sending him into a low-side at the final corner.
Crowd-pleasing Dani Pedrosa also had a tumble on his wildcard KTM entry, the bike tipping him off early on entry into Turn 2 with just under half an hour of the session to go.
Crashes were seemingly the order of the day as Miguel Oliveira did a carbon copy of his Trackhouse team-mate Fernandez’s tumble from early in the session.
To the surprise of no one, the pecking order was set to be decided between the European marques of Ducati, KTM and Aprilia, with Honda joining Yamaha in the doldrums – as has become routine.
Binder was the top rider at the halfway stage with a 1:36.795s benchmark, but with just over 20 minutes remaining, the quali sims began.
COTA winner Vinales was the first to go for a push lap, donning soft rubber front and rear to push the benchmark to a 1:36.482s laptime.
As the rest of the field followed Vinales’ lead and sought to push their times, Jack Miller had an off with 11 minutes to go – an unnecessary hurdle in his bid to regain form.
Meanwhile, Vinales had pushed the pace again to a 1:36.125s tour of the Angel Nieto Jerez circuit.
The field pit with just over seven minutes remaining, getting a last word with engineers before heading out for a five-minute time attack.
KTM’s problems in the session continued with Binder losing the front end and tumbling at Turn 7 whilst two-tenths under the provisional top time.
That brought out a brief yellow flag, interrupting riders’ push laps and putting extra pressure on the final laps.
Bagnaia was able to cope best, bettering Vinales’ time to take first place with Marquez resigning himself to third as traffic interrupted his final run.
There were better fortunes for VR46’s Marco Bezzechi aboard the GP23 Ducati, with the Italian posting a 1:36.364s time to go fourth fastest, just over three-tenths adrift of Bagnaia’s benchmark.
Championship leader Jorge Martin went fifth fastest courtesy of a 1:36.435s effort on the Pramac GP24 Ducati with rookie sensation claiming his Q2 qualifying slot late on by posting the Tech3 GasGas machine in sixth (1:36.439s).
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro went seventh fastest with a 1:36.446s effort, ahead of eighth fastest Enea Bastianini aboard the second factory Ducati (1:36.40s).
VR46 Ducati rider Fabi Digiannantonio (1:36.536s) and Gresini’s Alex Marquez (1:36.539s) completed the top-10 and the riders that secured the all-important automatic Q2 appearance for Saturday qualifying.
Binder’s late crash resigned him to 11th position (1:36.644s) ahead of Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli in 12th (1:36.711s).
Miller’s earlier crash meant he could only muster 13th on the leaderboard (1:36.900s) ahead of Pedrosa on the third KTM (1:36.944s).
Alex Rins was the leading rider aboard a Japanese bike, placing his Yamaha in 15th courtesy of a 1:36.959s effort.
Takaaki Nakagami was the lead Honda in 16th aboard his LCR machine, lapping Jerez in a time of 1:36.969s.
After early crashes, it was a session to forget for Trackhouse as the American squad remains a step behind the factory Aprilia outfit.
Raul Fernandez could only place 17th (1:37.111s) with team-mate Oliveira in 19th (1:37.342s).
Splitting the two Trackhouse riders was LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco thanks to the Frenchman’s 1:37.277s laptime.
Yamaha’s Quartararo will be hoping for better tomorrow after he could only place 20th thanks to a 1:37.382s effort and the same could be said for Honda’s Joan Mir, who was 21st (1:37.611s).
Augusto Fernandez’s struggles continued aboard the second GasGas entry as he was resigned to 22nd position (1:37.611s).
Meanwhile, 24th-placed and beleaguered Honda rider Luca Marini (1:37.838s) split the two test riders at the back of the field, namely Honda’s Stefan Bradl (23rd, 1:37.709s) and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori (25th, 1:37.902s).
