Honda rider Marquez set the early pace with a 1m40.670s set using a medium front and a hard rear tyre, which stood as the benchmark until around the halfway point of the 45-minute session.

Aspar rider Alvaro Bautista briefly occupied the top spot when he logged a 1m40.386s aboard the 2016-spec Ducati, before becoming first to improve on Vinales’ FP1 benchmark with a 1m40.290s.

Now equipped with hard tyres front and rear, Marquez soon ousted his countryman as he set a 1m40.246s, which remained the time to beat heading into the final minutes of the session.

The threat of rain on Saturday led the majority of riders to fit new tyres for the closing stages in order to seal a top 10 place and avoid a potential Q1 appearance.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was first to beat Marquez, followed swiftly by Karel Abraham’s 2015-spec Aspar Ducati, before Marquez retook first on a 1m39.778s with a medium front and soft rear.

But Vinales saved his best for the very end, posting a 1m39.477s with the same tyre combination to beat Marquez by a full 0.301s and end the session on top.

Abraham and Bautista took third and fourth on the Aspar bikes, followed by Danilo Petrucci’s 2017 Pramac Ducati, all within half a second of Vinales – while Loris Baz made it four satellite Ducatis in the top six another two tenths back.

Crutchlow ended up being pushed down to seventh, ahead of Jonas Folger on the best of the Tech 3 Yamahas, Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia and Andrea Iannone’s Suzuki.

Several big names ended up missing out on a place in the top 10, putting them in danger of having to go through Q1 on Saturday if it rains.

Valentino Rossi languished down in P16, 1.054s off the pace of factory Yamaha teammate Vinales, two places behind Andrea Dovizioso on the best of the factory Ducatis.

Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile ended up 18th on the other works Desmosedici, 1.122s behind Vinales.

Dani Pedrosa also missed the top-10 cut in 13th place, having suffered a low-speed crash at Turn 13 towards the end of his second run.

Bradley Smith was the session’s only other crasher, as the KTM man suffered a high-speed off at Turn 1. He ended the session 22nd, one place behind teammate Pol Espargaro.

Second practice results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'39.477
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'39.778	0.301
3	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'39.880	0.403
4	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'39.922	0.445
5	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'39.960	0.483
6	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'40.120	0.643
7	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'40.124	0.647
8	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	1'40.157	0.680
9	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'40.175	0.698
10	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'40.250	0.773
11	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'40.338	0.861
12	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'40.340	0.863
13	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'40.345	0.868
14	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'40.399	0.922
15	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'40.431	0.954
16	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'40.531	1.054
17	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'40.588	1.111
18	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'40.599	1.122
19	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'40.908	1.431
20	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'41.083	1.606
21	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'41.632	2.155
22	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'42.074	2.597
23	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1'42.179	2.702