Misano MotoGP: Dovizioso heads Ducati 1-2 in FP2

Marc Marquez, along with Rossi, ended FP1 outside of the top 10, and with rain potentially arriving in both FP2 and FP3, they were at risk of missing out on making Q2 automatically.

But conditions stayed dry during the 45-minute session, and it took Marquez two flying laps to beat Dovizioso's FP1 benchmark and lead with a 1m32.537s.

Only Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro set a comparable laptime for most of the session, but the Italian was also nearly half a second off the pace.

Marquez stayed on top until the final two minutes of the session when he was finally demoted by first Lorenzo and then the Spaniard's Ducati teammate Dovizioso.

Dovizioso ended the session with a 1m32.198s, with Lorenzo completing a Ducati 1-2.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was narrowly pushed into third by Lorenzo, with Maverick Vinales leading Yamaha's efforts in fourth.

Works Honda rider Marquez did not improve in the end and dropped as low as fifth ahead of Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) and Alex Rins (Suzuki).

Like Marquez, Rossi also recovered to end the day within the top 10, but his place was in doubt until the dying stages as he was held up by Karel Abraham during one of his late laps.

But the local hero managed to improve to eighth ahead of his protege Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) and Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco.

However Zarco, despite taking 10th, is not currently set to make it to Q2 automatically as Andrea Iannone's FP1 time puts the Suzuki rider eighth overall.

Iannone was only 16th in FP2 as he was one of three riders to crash at Turn 15, alongside Scott Redding and Takaaki Nakagami.

Hafizh Syahrin and Jack Miller suffered their second falls in as many sessions, their incidents occurring at Turn 8 and 16 respectively.

KTM's Pol Espargaro, returning from injury, languished down in 24th, only beating Syahrin (Tech 3) and MotoGP debutant Christophe Ponsson (Avintia Ducati), who cut his FP1 deficit by some one-and-a-half seconds and was 5.9s off the pace, putting himself within the 107% limit.

FP2 results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	21	1'32.198
2	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	18	1'32.358	0.160
3	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	19	1'32.385	0.187
4	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	21	1'32.411	0.213
5	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	22	1'32.537	0.339
6	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	21	1'32.722	0.524
7	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	22	1'32.775	0.577
8	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	21	1'32.786	0.588
9	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	19	1'32.980	0.782
10	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	21	1'32.985	0.787
11	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	22	1'32.999	0.801
12	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	17	1'33.005	0.807
13	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	22	1'33.183	0.985
14	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	18	1'33.193	0.995
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	19	1'33.274	1.076
16	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	19	1'33.423	1.225
17	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	16	1'33.517	1.319
18	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	21	1'33.654	1.456
19	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	21	1'33.660	1.462
20	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	19	1'33.815	1.617
21	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	21	1'33.878	1.680
22	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	19	1'33.896	1.698
23	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	21	1'34.278	2.080
24	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	18	1'34.461	2.263
25	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	16	1'34.539	2.341
26	23	Christophe Ponsson	Ducati	22	1'38.154	5.956