Le Mans MotoGP: Lorenzo dominates FP2, Rossi only 10th

Having been narrowly bested by Dani Pedrosa in FP1, Lorenzo cleared the Honda rider's benchmark with his first proper lap, before dipping into the 1m33s margin for the first time this weekend.

Another improvement followed after that, the Yamaha rider eventually retreating into the pits at the top of the timesheets, his 1m33.572s lap a tenth of a second up on nearest rival Marc Marquez.

Neither Lorenzo, nor Marquez would better their times during their respective second runs, allowing Andrea Dovizioso to split the two Spaniards as the session approached its closing stages.

With track conditions getting better and riders seemingly sensing a chance to log a good lap for tomorrow's automatic Q2 cut-off, a flurry of improvements followed in the final 10 minutes.

Lorenzo himself ramped up the pace drastically, first logging a 1m33.299s and then following it up with a 1m32.830s.

At that point, the Spaniard had led the rest of the field by a whopping eight tenths - and while Ducati's Andrea Iannone managed to cut the gap down to just three tenths at the chequered flag, Lorenzo would remain untroubled out front.

Marquez, who had been Lorenzo's closest rival for most of the session, settled for third, ahead of top satellite rider Pol Espargaro.

Dovizioso took fifth, with Aleix Espargaro beating Suzuki teammate Maverick Vinales to sixth and Pedrosa just eighth.

It was a muted session for Rossi, who had been 10th at the halfway point and did not improve his position by the end of the session.

Three riders suffered crashes during the session - Cal Crutchlow, Scott Redding and Loris Baz, the latter falling for the second time on Friday.

Free practice 2 results

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:32.830		19
2	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP16	1:33.169	+0.339	20
3	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	1:33.313	+0.483	21
4	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:33.406	+0.576	22
5	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP16	1:33.574	+0.744	21
6	Aleix Espargaro	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:33.595	+0.765	18
7	Maverick Viñales	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:33.613	+0.783	20
8	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	1:33.748	+0.918	20
9	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:33.951	+1.121	20
10	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:33.974	+1.144	19
11	Danilo Petrucci	Octo Pramac Yakhnich	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:34.050	+1.220	20
12	Cal Crutchlow	Team LCR	Honda RC213V	1:34.053	+1.223	14
13	Scott Redding	Octo Pramac Yakhnich	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:34.083	+1.253	17
14	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:34.306	+1.476	23
15	Loris Baz	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:34.364	+1.534	16
16	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Racing Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:34.425	+1.595	19
17	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Racing Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:34.531	+1.701	18
18	Jack Miller	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda RC213V	1:34.656	+1.826	18
19	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	1:34.742	+1.912	20
20	Tito Rabat	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda RC213V	1:34.789	+1.959	22
21	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	1:35.089	+2.259	19