Valencia MotoGP: Quartararo tops FP2 as Rossi crashes again

Petronas SRT rider Quartararo, already fastest in FP1, snatched first place away from works Yamaha man Maverick Vinales in the closing stages to lead the field on Friday by 0.148 seconds.

The early stages of Friday’s second session were frantic, with top spot changing hands a number of times over just a handful of laps.

Rossi set the initial pace with a 1m33.055s, before Marc Marquez demoted him with a 1m32.102s just seconds later.

FP1 runner-up Jack Miller soon deposed Marquez by 0.015s, before Vinales put Yamaha back on top with a 1m31.90ss after just six minutes of the session.

Marquez’s next effort of 1m30.974s, however, proved to be the fastest of the day so far and lifted him close to a second clear of the field – just as he did in the early stages of FP1.

Rossi’s session was soon once again interrupted by a crash, this time at the Turn 10 right-hander that had caught Avintia’s Karel Abraham out this morning.

Marquez’s laptime sat as the benchmark for some time, with Vinales cutting his advantage just 0.381s.

As the session entered its closing seven minutes, Suzuki’s Joan Mir became the first to threaten Marquez’s place atop the timesheets, though would miss out by just over three tenths in second.

Miller took a tumble at exiting the Mick Doohan left with 15 minutes remaining, valiantly trying to right himself with his elbow before conceding defeat.

Undeterred by this, he challenged Marquez once back out on track and got to within 0.026s of the Honda rider, before Vinales finally usurped him with a 1m30.883s in the closing moments.

Quartararo trailed by 0.081s, but hooked up his penultimate tour to post a 1m30.735s which would not be bettered come the chequered flag.

Marquez wound up third on the Honda, 0.239s down on Quartararo, while Miller and the second SRT bike of Franco Morbidelli completed the top five.

Alex Rins headed Suzuki teammate Mir in sixth, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro beat Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and LCR’s Johann Zarco to eighth.

Dovizioso’s session wasn’t without incident, as a fluid leak in the second half of the outing from the front of his bike forced him back to pitlane.

Rossi was shuffled down to 14th following his crash, while rookie Iker Lecuona found well over a second in FP2 on the Tech3 KTM and improved to a 1m33.114s – though was still last of the 23-strong field.

Session results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	23	1'30.735
2	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	24	1'30.883	0.148
3	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	21	1'30.974	0.239
4	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	19	1'31.000	0.265
5	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	23	1'31.199	0.464
6	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	22	1'31.230	0.495
7	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	22	1'31.280	0.545
8	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	17	1'31.305	0.570
9	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	17	1'31.351	0.616
10	5	Johann Zarco	Honda	22	1'31.369	0.634
11	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	20	1'31.433	0.698
12	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	19	1'31.455	0.720
13	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	17	1'31.765	1.030
14	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	15	1'31.775	1.040
15	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	19	1'31.868	1.133
16	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	17	1'31.880	1.145
17	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	19	1'31.905	1.170
18	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	21	1'32.159	1.424
19	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	19	1'32.278	1.543
20	82	Mika Kallio	KTM	19	1'32.467	1.732
21	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	18	1'32.568	1.833
22	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	20	1'32.887	2.152
23	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	21	1'33.114	2.379
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