Motegi MotoGP: Lorenzo tops second practice, Rossi eighth

Lorenzo is 14 points behind Rossi following his recent dominant Aragon victory, with only four races remaining. But Lorenzo is suffering from a sprained shoulder, incurred after he fell of a minibike at a barbecue last weekend.

Story of the session

Ducati's Andrea Iannone set the first representative laptime of the session, a 1m46.226s, with Honda's Marc Marquez (suffering a broken finger on his left hand) the first under the 1m46s barrier, with 1m45.826s before the second Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso popped in 1m46.680s.

Lorenzo went to the top on 1m45.619s, with Marquez improving to third and Rossi moving up to fourth on 1m45.780s.

Lorenzo’s pace was relentless, improving to 1m45.535s and then 1m45.426s, with Iannone right behind on 1m45.586s. Marquez intersected them in P2 on 1m45.529s, the top three covered by 0.16s at this point, with Dovizioso a quarter of a second off after the first runs and Rossi down in fifth.

On the second runs, Dovizioso was one of the few to improve his time, first to 1m45.630s and then 1m45.624s, but stayed in fourth.

Rossi tried the soft rear for his final run, having dropped to 0.354s off Lorenzo’s pace. He fractionally improved to 1m45.771s, then 1m45.692s, but remained fifth.

Tech 3's Bradley Smith then jumped to the top of the timesheets on 1m45.358s on his Yamaha with less than five minutes remaining, then set a 1m45.250s. Lorenzo responded with his sensational 1m44.731s, which would prove to be the fastest time of the session.

Dovizioso went second on 1m45.099s and a flurry of fast times at the end of the session saw Rossi relegated to 10th. Pedrosa leapt to second on 1m44.859s, with Iannone P3 on 1m45.043s.

Dovizioso managed a 1m45.059s for fourth, with Smith in fifth ahead of the leading Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro.

Rossi rose to eighth on his final lap, just behind Marquez, but worryingly for him ended the session 0.8s off Lorenzo.

In a session with few incidents, Loris Baz crashed at Turn 11, as did Yamaha wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga late on.

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:44.731
2	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	1:44.859	+0.128
3	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:45.043	+0.312
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:45.059	+0.328
5	Bradley Smith	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.250	+0.519
6	Aleix Espargaro	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:45.348	+0.617
7	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	1:45.492	+0.761
8	Valentino Rossi	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.554	+0.823
9	Pol Espargaro	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.597	+0.866
10	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:45.645	+0.914
11	Cal Crutchlow	CWM LCR Honda	Honda RC213V	1:45.846	+1.115
12	Scott Redding	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda RC213V	1:46.074	+1.343
13	Maverick Viñales	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:46.464	+1.733
14	Jack Miller	CWM LCR Honda	Honda	1:46.477	+1.746
15	Yonny Hernandez	Pramac Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:46.563	+1.832
16	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:46.648	+1.917
17	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	1:46.649	+1.918
18	Takumi Takahashi	Team HRC with NISSIN	Honda RC213V	1:46.650	+1.919
19	Eugene Laverty	Aspar MotoGP Team	Honda RC213V-RS	1:46.770	+2.039
20	Nicky Hayden	Aspar MotoGP Team	Honda RC213V-RS	1:46.827	+2.096
21	Mike di Meglio	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:46.934	+2.203
22	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	1:46.974	+2.243
23	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha Factory Racing Team	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:47.096	+2.365
24	Loris Baz	Athinà Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1:47.219	+2.488
25	Toni Elias	Athinà Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1:47.689	+2.958
26	Alex de Angelis	Octo IodaRacing Team	ART	1:48.572	+3.841
27	Kousuke Akiyoshi	AB Motoracing	Honda RC213V-RS	1:48.769	+4.038