Jack Miller swept Friday running for the European GP at Valencia with a late flyer to deny Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro at the death.
Having led Friday morning’s wet FP1 session, Miller was one of the many riders to lead the way during a flurry of times that made up the majority of the opening half of FP2.
The Ricardo Tormo circuit had dried further since the end of FP1, allowing the riders to venture out on slicks as the session got underway.
With times straight away several seconds up on those from the opening test, the field found themselves with more and more confidence as the track conditions continued to improve and the slick tyres warmed up more and more.
Miguel Oliveira looked to have won the battle as the initial improvements tailed off, the Tech 3 KTM racer posting a 1:35.754 to keep himself just over a tenth clear of Danilo Petrucci and Pol Espargaro on the factory KTM.
Miller then made a pair of substantial of improvements minutes later, lowering the benchmark to a 1:34.613 before being relegated to second by team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.
Times continued to etch ever further downwards across the remaining stages of the 45 minute session, with Franco Morbidelli seemingly snatching the initiative from LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in the dying moments of the session with a rapid 1:32.804.
Aleix then banged in a surprise flyer on his Aprilia RS-GP to move ahead of the Italian, before Miller provided one final killer blow with his 1:32.528 to claim the monopoly of Friday running by just 0.092.
Morbidelli ultimately clung onto third spot ahead of Nakagami, while Pol completed the top five for KTM.
Cal Crutchlow improved in the closing stages to bag the sixth fastest time ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, with the second official KTM of Brad Binder eighth overall.
Andrea Dovizioso ended Friday in the top ten by matching his ninth fastest performance from FP1, while Fabio Quartararo found time to complete the top ten after struggling in the wet opening practice on Friday morning.
Mir ended up 11th just behind his title rival, with another in Maverick Vinales just behind in 12th-the Spaniard having just received news of a pit-lane start due to having to take a sixth engine of the season for the race.
Unlike the LCR-run Honda’s, the marque’s factory outfit struggled to breach the top ten in FP2, Stefan Bradl leading Alex Marquez in 14th and 16th respectively.
Garrett Gerloff meanwhile enjoyed time at the front on his MotoGP weekend debut, the American starring with an early time enough for fifth fastest, though he failed to improve late on and slipped to 19th, though still an encouraging 1.5 seconds from the top before Valentino Rossi will likely take back over his machine on Saturday.
Petrucci slipped to 18th overall due to a late fall at Turn 14, the Italian sprinting back to his pit only to find his spare machine not ready for track action-thus forcing him to end his session early with a few minutes remaining on the clock.
