Practice report
MotoGP French GP
Le Mans MotoGP: Dovizioso beats lap record in FP2
Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso led the way in second practice for this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans, leading Marc Marquez by a little under two tenths of a second.
Jamie Klein
Edited: May 18, 2018, 1:09 PM
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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#RiderBikeTimeGap 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
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