Bagnaia and Ducati pace the field in Spanish MotoGP FP2

Francesco Bagnaia topped FP2 for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez with a blistering final tour that left him with a commanding gap at the head of the field.

The Ducati racer loitered around the fringes of the top ten for the vast majority of the session, though the afterburners on his Desmosedici were well and truly lit as he headed out for a final push lap as the clock ticked down on the final part of Friday running.

The Italian fired in a 1:37.209s benchmark with only seconds remaining before the chequered flag was displayed, a time well over four-tenths clear of previous leader Aleix Espargaro.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo gave Bagnaia’s effort a run for its money on his own closing gambit, though he would ultimately come up 0.178s short as he slotted into second behind the Ducati and just ahead of Aleix’s Aprilia.

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Franco Morbidelli flew the flag for Petronas SRT with the fourth quickest time at the end of Friday, while the second factory Yamaha of Maverick Vinales completed the top five.

Takaaki Nakagami continued to look strong for LCR Honda as he closed out FP2 sixth quickest having sat solidly within the top three for the bulk of the 45-minute outing, while Miguel Oliveira ended the day as fastest KTM in seventh.

Alex Rins bagged the eighth quickest time on his Suzuki ahead of Johann Zarco’s Pramac-run Ducati, while FP1 pace setter Brad Binder completed the top ten-the South African acting as gate keeper to the final direct-to-Q2 spot heading into Saturday.

Marc Marquez elected not to head out for a final time attack in the closing stanza of the session and slipped to 16^th overall by end of play, two places behind factory Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro who was the last of the challengers to lap within a second of Bagnaia.

Valentino Rossi was unable to live with the form of his three Yamaha stable-mates as he languished once again towards the bottom of the timesheets, the seven-time premier class champion ending the day a lowly 21^st after having his 19^th best time deleted for a track limits infringement.

Pramac replacement rider Tito Rabat closed out the 22-strong MotoGP class after crashing out around two-thirds of the way through the session, the Spaniard going down at Turn 13 after losing the front of his Ducati.