Le Mans MotoGP: Dovizioso beats lap record in FP2

Dovizioso, whose new two-year Ducati deal was announced between the two Friday sessions, surged to the head of the times in the dying moments of the session with a lap of 1m31.971s.

That was enough to beat Jorge Lorenzo's qualifying record from 2016 by 0.004s, and Dovizioso made one final improvement after that to end the day with a best effort of 1m31.936s.

Marquez was Dovizioso's nearest challenger, 0.168s behind, having become the first man to break through the benchmark laid down by the Honda rider in the morning with 15 minutes to go.

Yamaha riders completed the top five, with Valentino Rossi making a late move to grab third, 0.243s off the pace, ahead of works teammate Maverick Vinales and the Tech 3 bike of Johann Zarco.

Home hero Zarco grabbed the top spot with two minutes to go, only to be beaten by Dovizioso, Marquez and both the factory Yamaha bikes in the closing moments.

Jack Miller was sixth on the best of the Pramac Ducatis ahead of Pol Espargaro's KTM, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia).

Lorenzo bagged the final spot in the top 10 on the second factory Ducati, beating Cal Crutchlow by just 0.010s after the LCR Honda rider crashed at Turn 7 late in the session.

Also needing to improve in third practice to be certain of a spot in Q2 are 13th-placed Danilo Petrucci (Pramac) and Suzuki duo Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins, who were 14th and 15th respectively.

Scott Redding was one of three riders to crash in quick succession early in the session, along with Pol Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda), with the Aprilia rider ending up 21st.

FP2 results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'31.936
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'32.104	0.168
3	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'32.179	0.243
4	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'32.204	0.268
5	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'32.279	0.343
6	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'32.302	0.366
7	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'32.414	0.478
8	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'32.466	0.530
9	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'32.572	0.636
10	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'32.576	0.640
11	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'32.586	0.650
12	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'32.617	0.681
13	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'32.647	0.711
14	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'32.752	0.816
15	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'32.803	0.867
16	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'32.851	0.915
17	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'33.072	1.136
18	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'33.318	1.382
19	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	1'33.435	1.499
20	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	1'33.667	1.731
21	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	1'33.830	1.894
22	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'33.942	2.006
23	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	1'34.089	2.153
24	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	1'34.311	2.375