Jerez MotoGP: Pedrosa leads Honda trio, Vinales crashes in FP2

After Pedrosa topped a Honda-dominated order in Friday morning's wet first practice session at Jerez, its riders featured heavily throughout the afternoon session, run in dry conditions.

For the bulk of the 45 minutes a Honda rider was at the top, and with 10 minutes remaining Pedrosa led LCR's Cal Crutchlow and reigning world champion Marc Marquez.

Pedrosa was the first into the sub-1m41s barrier, with a 1m40.840s and then the 1m40.542s that led the way as new-tyre runs started.

Lorenzo was the first big mover on his Ducati, vaulting from 14th to second with a lap just 0.062 seconds slower than Pedrosa.

The three-time world champion improved again the next time around to a 1m40.291s and displaced Pedrosa at the top, but his time there was fleeting.

Crutchlow and then Pedrosa moved back ahead of Lorenzo in the closing minutes, the latter going well clear with a 1m39.420s that was not bettered.

Marc VDS Honda's Jack Miller jumped Crutchlow and finished up as Pedrosa's closest challenger, 0.554s adrift.

While those three Honda riders filled the top three places, Marquez dropped to 14th in the order after electing not to run new tyres.

Lorenzo wound up fourth, albeit 0.871s slower than Pedrosa, while Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci was fifth and Yamaha's Maverick Vinales sixth.

Yamaha tried its winglet-substitute fairing during the session, which started with a crash for Vinales.

The Spaniard lost the front end at Turn 9 after hitting a damp patch, while Aleix Espargaro and Karel Abraham also came unstuck in the early stages.

Vinales was 0.959s off the pace, while teammate Valentino Rossi had another quiet session, the championship leader down in 12th place.

Avintia satellite rider Alvaro Bautista was the next-best Ducati after Lorenzo and Petrucci in seventh, one place ahead of factory rider Andrea Dovizioso.

Espargaro regrouped from his early crash to finish ninth fastest for Aprilia, just ahead of his brother Pol Espargaro, in an encouraging session for MotoGP newcomer KTM.

Running KTM's revamped engine, Espargaro was 1.059s slower than Pedrosa, with teammate Bradley Smith 18th.

The best of the Suzukis was Andrea Iannone in 16th, having trailed test rider and injury stand-in Takuya Tsuda until the closing stages.

Cla	Driver	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	20	1'39.420
2	Jack Miller	Honda	20	1'39.964	0.544
3	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	19	1'40.045	0.625
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	20	1'40.291	0.871
5	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	19	1'40.378	0.958
6	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	16	1'40.379	0.959
7	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	21	1'40.392	0.972
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	18	1'40.428	1.008
9	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	17	1'40.479	1.059
10	Pol Espargaro	KTM	15	1'40.573	1.153
11	Scott Redding	Ducati	19	1'40.639	1.219
12	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	20	1'40.698	1.278
13	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	20	1'40.773	1.353
14	Marc Marquez	Honda	19	1'40.915	1.495
15	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	17	1'41.019	1.599
16	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	19	1'41.165	1.745
17	Tito Rabat	Honda	20	1'41.165	1.745
18	Bradley Smith	KTM	20	1'41.432	2.012
19	Takuya Tsuda	Suzuki	19	1'41.887	2.467
20	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	18	1'41.905	2.485
21	Karel Abraham	Ducati	16	1'41.909	2.489
22	Loris Baz	Ducati	19	1'42.515	3.095
23	Hector Barbera	Ducati	17	1'42.630	3.210