Practice report

Austin MotoGP: Vinales deposes Marquez in second practice

Maverick Vinales beat Marc Marquez to top second practice for this weekend's Grand Prix of the Americas at Austin, as Honda debuted a Ducati-style winglet on its MotoGP bike.

Honda had already gained the approval of MotoGP technical director Danny Aldridge to use its version of the controversial appendage first used by Ducati in Qatar, with the winglet finally breaking cover on Marquez's bike during the Spaniard's second run.

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By that stage, the reigning champion had already beaten his benchmark time from the morning's opening practice session, moving to the top on a 2m05.276s early on, before laying down a 2m04.719s on his next lap.

That remained the lap to beat until the final five minutes of the session, when the soft-tyre runs began in earnest, but Marquez found himself giving a tow to the Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller - who duly set a time 0.005s faster to take the top spot.

Next time round, Marquez was on course for the fastest time but pulled over late in the lap to allow Miller by. But moments before, Yamaha rider Vinales had eclipsed both Miller and Marquez riding on his own, setting a 2m03.857s.

Marquez tried to respond on his final flying lap, but had to settle for second, falling short of Vinales' time by 0.044s.

Valentino Rossi briefly made it a Yamaha 1-2 with his 2m04.003s lap, and ended up third, just over a tenth slower than Marquez and 0.002s up on Miller in fourth.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow completed the top five, followed by Alex Rins on the Suzuki and KTM's Pol Espargaro, who profited from sitting behind Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati on his best lap.

Grabbing the final three provisional Q2 spots were Petronas Yamaha pair Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo and the second Pramac bike of rookie Francesco Bagnaia.

Dovizioso was the biggest name to miss out on a space in the top 10, ending up almost a tenth down on Bagnaia, and with rain forecast for Saturday morning the Italian faces having to fight through the first segment of qualifying.

Works teammate Danilo Petrucci likewise ended up down in 13th, a place ahead of top Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro, while Jorge Lorenzo's tough weekend continued in 16th place.

Second practice times:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	2'03.857
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	2'03.901	0.044
3	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2'04.003	0.146
4	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	2'04.005	0.148
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	2'04.118	0.261
6	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	2'04.353	0.496
7	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2'04.364	0.507
8	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	2'04.548	0.691
9	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	2'04.589	0.732
10	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	2'04.630	0.773
11	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2'04.714	0.857
12	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	2'04.851	0.994
13	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	2'04.906	1.049
14	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	2'04.953	1.096
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	2'05.020	1.163
16	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	2'05.169	1.312
17	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	2'05.491	1.634
18	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	2'05.955	2.098
19	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	2'06.162	2.305
20	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	2'06.204	2.347
21	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	2'06.276	2.419
22	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	2'06.850	2.993