Barcelona MotoGP: Espargaro leads Aprilia 1-2 in second practice

VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi set the early pace on his GP21, jumping up to fifth on the combined order before improving to third with a 1m40.577s – which put the Italian rookie third overall.  

It wouldn’t be until halfway through the 45-minute afternoon session at Barcelona when Alex Rins’ best effort from FP1 was toppled by Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.  

The home favourite edged ahead with a 1m40.067s, which stood as the benchmark until the closing seven minutes when teammate Maverick Vinales fired in the first soft tyre time attack of the day.  

Vinales broke the 1m40s barrier with a 1m39.884s, improving to a 1m39.705s on his next tour before the rest of the field took to the circuit in the final minutes for a soft tyre time attack. 

Quick lap times were posted across the order, but it was Espargaro on the Aprilia who lit up the timing screens and produced a 1m39.402s to beat Vinales by 0.303s.  

Enea Bastainini completed the top three on his Gresini Ducati, with Francesco Bagnaia shadowing him in fourth on his factory team Ducati.  

Jorge Martin recovered from his FP1 crash to finish Friday fifth-fastest on his Pramac Ducati, albeit 0.587s off Espargaro’s best, with Brad Binder getting the KTM into the top six in sixth with a late 1m40.083s.  

Jack Miller was seventh on the second factory team Ducati from reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo, who was 0.721s off the pace on his factory Yamaha ahead of FP1 pacesetter Rins.  

The Suzuki rider was trailed by Pramac’s Johann Zarco, but the Frenchman was demoted to 17th after having his final lap cancelled due to a yellow flag infringement. 

This promoted Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli up to 10th ahead of Honda’s top runner Pol Espargaro in 11th.  

Early pacesetter Bezzecchi also had a lap cancelled late on, which dumped him down to 14th ahead of teammate Luca Marini and an out-of-sorts 2020 world champion Joan Mir on the second Suzuki.  

Barcelona MotoGP - FP2 results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap
1	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	1'39.402
2	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	1'39.705	0.303
3	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	1'39.890	0.488
4	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	1'39.950	0.548
5	Jorge Martin		Ducati	1'39.989	0.587
6	Brad Binder		KTM	1'40.083	0.681
7	Jack Miller		Ducati	1'40.095	0.693
8	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	1'40.123	0.721
9	Alex Rins		Suzuki	1'40.126	0.724
10	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	1'40.204	0.802
11	Pol Espargaro		Honda	1'40.237	0.835
12	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	1'40.256	0.854
13	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	1'40.346	0.944
14	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	1'40.428	1.026
15	Luca Marini		Ducati	1'40.448	1.046
16	Joan Mir		Suzuki	1'40.650	1.248
17	Johann Zarco		Ducati	1'40.752	1.350
18	Alex Marquez		Honda	1'40.785	1.383
19	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	1'40.821	1.419
20	Darryn Binder		Yamaha	1'40.871	1.469
21	Andrea Dovizioso		Yamaha	1'40.943	1.541
22	Michele Pirro		Ducati	1'41.051	1.649
23	Stefan Bradl		Honda	1'41.074	1.672
24	Raúl Fernández		KTM	1'42.074	2.672
25	Remy Gardner		KTM	1'42.286	2.884
View full results