Threats of rain stayed away as the hour-long second practice at Rio Honda got underway, with 2022 Argentina GP winner Aleix Espargaro taking over from team-mate Maverick Vinales to head the field.
A late surge of time attack laps as the field tried to bag a place in the top 10 to get directly into Saturday’s Q2 qualifying session led to Espargaro producing a 1m38.518s to end Friday fastest of all by 0.162 seconds.
As the Aprilia’s bathed in glory, misery dominated the Yamaha garage as 2021 world champion Quartararo continued to battle grip issues on his M1 this afternoon.
Despite his best efforts, Quartararo could only go 14th quickest in FP2, 0.746s off the pace as his Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli sneaked through in ninth.
After 10 minutes of the session, only three riders had found any lap time gains from their FP1 best – though nothing to trouble the top 10.
The first significant improvement came with 35 minutes to go when LCR Honda’s Alex Rins moved up to fifth with a 1m39.603s.
Behind him, championship leader Francesco Bagnaia went eighth on his factory Ducati.
Around 15 minutes later, Jorge Martin on his Pramac-run GP23 Ducati lit up the timing screens to go top with a 1m39.137s.
The Spaniard, carrying a broken toe from the Marc Marquez/Miguel Oliveira incident in Portugal, improved to a 1m39.092s to strengthen his position at the front of the pack.
However, it would not stand for long as Espargaro made his first play for the fastest lap with a. 1m39.079s on fresh medium rubber.
Shadowing Espargaro was Bagnaia, who dipped into the 1m38s for the first time this weekend with a 1m38.969s.
Moments later, Vinales on the sister factory Aprilia delivered a 1m38.852s to go fastest, the Spaniard rebuffing a brief usurping from VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi in the closing stages with a 1m38.680s.
With just under two minutes to go, Espargaro fired in his 1m38.518s to end Friday fastest of all despite taking a trip through the gravel at Turn 1 just after tripping the timing beam with his session-best.
Vinales couldn’t close the 0.162s gap between the factory Aprilias, though ends Friday with incredibly promising race pace.
Bezzecchi completed the top three ahead of VR46 team-mate Luca Marini, while Johann Zacro rounded out the top five on his Pramac Ducati.
Bagnaia was sandwiched between the Pramac duo as Martin finished seventh, with Takaaki Nakagami the leading rider on a Japanese bike in eighth on his LCR-run Honda.
The final direct Q2 places were secured by Morbidelli on the factory Yamaha and LCR’s Rins, with Alex Marquez just 0.067s outside in 11th on his Gresini Ducati.
Brad Binder was the leading KTM on a difficult day for the Austrian manufacturer in 12th ahead of the factory Honda of Mir and the struggling Quartararo.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was 15th on the sister Gresini Ducati, with Jack Miller (KTM), Tech3 rookie Augusto Fernandez – who had a crash 15 minutes into the session at Turn 1 – and RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez completing the 18-rider field.
Full Practice 2 results:
| Cla | Rider | Bike | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Aleix Espargaro |
Aprilia | 21 | 1'38.518 | |
| 2 | Maverick Viñales |
Aprilia | 26 | 1'38.680 | 0.162 |
| 3 |  Marco Bezzecchi |
Ducati | 24 | 1'38.767 | 0.249 |
| 4 | Luca Marini |
Ducati | 25 | 1'38.833 | 0.315 |
| 5 |  Johann Zarco |
Ducati | 22 | 1'38.909 | 0.391 |
| 6 | Francesco Bagnaia |
Ducati | 20 | 1'38.944 | 0.426 |
| 7 | Jorge Martin |
Ducati | 25 | 1'39.006 | 0.488 |
| 8 |  Takaaki Nakagami |
Honda | 25 | 1'39.071 | 0.553 |
| 9 | Franco Morbidelli |
Yamaha | 23 | 1'39.080 | 0.562 |
| 10 | Alex Rins |
Honda | 24 | 1'39.117 | 0.599 |
| 11 | Alex Marquez |
Ducati | 26 | 1'39.184 | 0.666 |
| 12 |  Brad Binder |
KTM | 22 | 1'39.202 | 0.684 |
| 13 | Joan Mir |
Honda | 23 | 1'39.237 | 0.719 |
| 14 | Fabio Quartararo |
Yamaha | 27 | 1'39.264 | 0.746 |
| 15 | Fabio Di Giannantonio |
Ducati | 25 | 1'39.288 | 0.770 |
| 16 |  Jack Miller |
KTM | 24 | 1'39.376 | 0.858 |
| 17 | Augusto Fernandez |
KTM | 20 | 1'39.561 | 1.043 |
| 18 | Raúl Fernández |
Aprilia | 23 | 1'39.575 | 1.057 |
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