Le Mans MotoGP: Vinales tops crash-filled FP2

Championship leader Marc Marquez led most of the session but his 1m32.2s efforts were slower than Fabio Quartararo's FP1 benchmark, before times tumbled significantly at the end of FP2.

Vinales first took the lead with a 1m31.983s with three minutes remaining but he was quickly demoted by Jorge Lorenzo.

But Vinales was able to improve two more times with a 1m31.549s and then a 1m31.428s to head an ultra-close classification, in which 15 riders slotted in within one second of the fastest time.

Marquez took second but was nearly two tenths slower than Vinales, with local hero Quartararo ending up third.

The Frenchman beat Lorenzo by three thousandths of a second, while Andrea Dovizioso took fifth, only 0.02s behind.

Dovizioso was the top Ducati in what was an otherwise difficult FP2 for the Italian firm, with Danilo Petrucci crashing while exiting Turn 8 at the very beginning of the session, while Pramac Jack Miller had crashes at T3 and T11 respectively.

Petrucci recovered to sixth followed by KTM's Pol Espargaro, who also had two falls, and Aleix Espargaro, the Aprilia man another rider to crash in the end.

LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami took ninth as the top nine riders in the session also hold the same positions in the overall practice classification.

Franco Morbidelli completed the top 10, narrowly edging Cal Crutchlow out, the Briton challenging for the top positions before crashing at Turn 6.

Rossi had to settle for 13th as he curiously started the late-session flying laps on a medium rear tyre, and a late change to soft left him with no time to move into the combined classification top 10.

Rain is forecast for Saturday, and should it arrive to the track early enough for FP3, Rossi could be forced to fight his way through Q1 along with several other usual frontrunners.

Suzuki duo Joan Mir, whose session also ended with a crash, and Alex Rins were only 14th and 15th respectively in FP2, ahead of Miller.

But Miller still ended the day in the overall top 10, by just 0.001s ahead of Morbidelli.

FP2 results

Cla	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	21	1'31.428
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	22	1'31.618	0.190
3	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	23	1'31.713	0.285
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	22	1'31.716	0.288
5	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	21	1'31.736	0.308
6	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	17	1'31.899	0.471
7	Pol Espargaro	KTM	12	1'31.923	0.495
8	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	17	1'32.132	0.704
9	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	20	1'32.203	0.775
10	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	22	1'32.239	0.811
11	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	18	1'32.270	0.842
12	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	18	1'32.285	0.857
13	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	20	1'32.320	0.892
14	Joan Mir	Suzuki	23	1'32.322	0.894
15	Alex Rins	Suzuki	22	1'32.385	0.957
16	Jack Miller	Ducati	15	1'32.573	1.145
17	Johann Zarco	KTM	19	1'32.574	1.146
18	Karel Abraham	Ducati	18	1'32.999	1.571
19	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	18	1'33.141	1.713
20	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	20	1'33.401	1.973
21	Tito Rabat	Ducati	23	1'33.431	2.003
22	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	19	1'33.903	2.475
View full results