Jack Miller fired his Ducati to the head of the times in FP2 for the Aragon Grand Prix to lead the way on Friday ahead of Aleix Espargaro.
Miller spent most of the session-like the majority of the field- focussing on race runs, with the top spot going to Takaaki Nakagami for the bulk of the test, the LCR Honda rider’s 1:48.574s leaving him just ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
This is the way things remained until the final few minutes, when Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona shot to the head of the times shortly before Aleix manoeuvred his RS-GP to the peak of the timesheets.
Miller though was on a flyer as he lapped more than a quarter-of-a-second quicker than anyone else, a 1:47.613s that would ultimately be enough to leave him atop the times at the end of the opening day of running at Motorland Aragon, Aleix hanging onto second overall.
Cal Crutchlow ended up as the fastest Yamaha with a storming final effort to lap just 0.284s adrift of Miller, the Brit firmly getting himself reacquainted with racing in his fourth event back after retiring from full-time racing at the end of last year.
Johann Zarco managed to find a late improvement to end Friday fourth overall ahead of Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin, with Francesco Bagnaia ensuring all four GP21 Ducati’s would end the day in the top six despite an awkward crash at Turn 5, the Italian asking for a little too much power on corner exit and spinning out as a result.
Quartararo was shuffled back to seventh at the conclusion of the session just ahead of Nakagami, while Enea Bastinanini once again showed promising speed for Avintia in ninth just clear of Pol Espargaro’s Honda.
Suzuki’s rather quiet afternoon saw its two riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir in 11th and 21st respectively, the latter seemingly suffering with reliability woes early on that hampered his ability to post a competitive lap time.
FP1 leader Marc Marquez ended up only 20th after the Honda man also suffered a crash-though his was at the high-speed Turn 15 after missing his braking point while following brother Alex into the bend.
Maverick Vinales’ first full day of running for Aprilia on a race weekend ended encouragingly despite being only 19th on the timesheets, the Spaniard lapping just 1.142s adrift of Miller, giving him good scope to approach the top ten on Saturday.
