Aleix Espargaro completed a dominant afternoon in Indonesia to ensure a 1-2 result at the end of Friday for the Aprilia MotoGP outfit, while Francesco Bagnaia will contest Q1.
Espargaro came out guns blazing right for the outset of the second practice outing of the weekend, the Spaniard swiftly beating FP1 pace-setter Jorge Martin’s morning benchmark with a 1:31.783s, an effort just over a tenth-of-a-second faster than his countryman.
Times continued to fall across the remainder of the 60-minute test as the Mandalika International Circuit gradually cleaned up and afforded the riders more grip, with Espargaro and Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales taking turns at the head of the timesheets.
Marco Bezzecchi, who arrived in Indonesia just hours before practice having broken a collarbone just days before, threw a spanner in the works as he set a stunning 1:30.644s to move a couple tenths clear of Vinales as the field prepared for their final attack runs.
The VR46 rider was unable to improve upon his gambit towards the end, though the same couldn’t be said for the Aprilia duo. Espargaro managed to string together yet another improvement to post a 1:30.474s with just a couple of minutes remaining, an effort that ultimately would remain unbeaten.
Vinales got closest as he lapped 0.154s adrift of Espargaro to complete an Aprilia 1-2 at the end of the opening day of running at Mandalika, with Bezzecchi impressively holding onto a top-three placing.
Brad Binder brushed off an early crash at Turn 11 that saw him collected by Augusto Fernandez after the pair ran wide into the dirt, the latter losing his GasGas-run RC16 as a result and sliding into the side of the South African. He subsequently ended the day fourth overall thanks to a late flyer.
Title contender Jorge Martin managed to get one up on series leader Bagnaia once again as he ended the day fifth quickest, while Bagnaia missed out on a direct-to-Q2 berth having struggled for pace.
The reigning world champion lost his penultimate effort to yellow flags after Jack Miller went down at Turn 1, while a mistake on his final lap left him a lowly 16th in the times heading into Saturday.
Honda’s Marc Marquez went well to claim sixth, while Miguel Oliveira made it three Aprilias in the top seven for the RNF outfit.
Fabio Di Gianantonio continued his recent strong run to end Friday eighth overall, while Miller held onto ninth overall despite his late crash.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo initially ended the session sixth fastest, though lost his best effort for track limits shortly after. Fortunately for the Frenchman, his second-best lap was enough to keep him just within the top ten by half-a-tenth over Pol Espargaro.
Luca Marini returned from injury to end the day 12th overall ahead of the struggling Johann Zarco, while Franco Morbidelli was shuffled from the top ten late on to end the day 15th.
Joan Mir was 19th after crashing at the death having been put off by Bagnaia’s mistake, while Enea Bastianini and Alex Rins made their welcome competition returns to lap just under two seconds away from Espargaro’s benchmark in 20th and 21st respectively.
