Brno MotoGP: Quartararo leads Petronas 1-2 in FP2

Fabio Quartararo pipped Petronas Yamaha MotoGP teammate Franco Morbidelli by 0.007 seconds in second practice for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.

Factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci set the initial pace in FP2 with a 1m58.583s, though this was quickly beaten by KTM’s Pol Espargaro with a 1m57.583s.

Championship leader Quartararo deposed the factory KTM man with a 1m57.564s, before Joan Mir leaped up to top spot on the Suzuki with a 1m57.445s.

This stood as the benchmark until the closing six minutes, when most of the field opted for a time attack on soft rubber.

Morbidelli blitzed the field with a 1m56.509s, and this lap would remain intact until after the chequered flag, when teammate Quartararo started lighting up the timing screens.

Quartararo was repeatedly caught on camera visibly angry, and was shaking his head after firing in the 1m56.502s lap which put him into top spot at the end of the session.

Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira completed the top three, 0.048s off top spot at a circuit where KTM comes armed with recent data courtesy of a private test with Dani Pedrosa last month.

Avintia Ducati's Johann Zarco leaped up to fourth late on to end the day as top Ducati runner, with Maverick Vinales fifth on the works Yamaha.

Mir was shuffled back to sixth ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, while his KTM-mounted brother Pol was a further 0.018s adrift in eighth.

FP1 pacesetter Takaaki Nakagami was ninth and top Honda runner on the year-old LCR RC213V, with Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller completing the top 10.

Neither works team Ducati riders currently occupy a provisional Q2 place, with Petrucci heading Andrea Dovizioso in 14th – the latter not bettering his time from FP1.

Valentino Rossi was 12th on the sister works team Yamaha ahead of the still-injured Suzuki of Alex Rins, with Alex Marquez 16th on the Honda after suffering a technical issue early in the session.

Marc Marquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl once again propped up the field, some 1.922s off the pace as he gears up for his first MotoGP race in almost a year.

Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia was absent from FP2 while undergoing checks in hospital on a fractured knee suffered in a crash in FP1. He will sit out the rest of the Czech GP weekend and will be out of action at next week’s Austrian GP.

Czech GP - Second practice results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1'56.502
2	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1'56.509	0.007
3	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1'56.550	0.048
4	5	Johann Zarco	Ducati	1'56.583	0.081
5	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'56.668	0.166
6	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'56.876	0.374
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'57.041	0.539
8	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'57.059	0.557
9	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'57.073	0.571
10	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'57.109	0.607
11	33	Brad Binder	KTM	1'57.279	0.777
12	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'57.290	0.788
13	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'57.354	0.852
14	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'57.620	1.118
15	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'57.635	1.133
16	73	Alex Marquez	Honda	1'57.688	1.186
17	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'57.777	1.275
18	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'57.865	1.363
19	38	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	1'58.161	1.659
20	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	1'58.378	1.876
21	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1'58.424	1.922
	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati
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