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MotoGP Valencia GP: Vinales tops second practice, Bagnaia in Q1 for finale

With 21 points splitting factory Ducati rider Bagnaia and Pramac’s Martin coming into this weekend’s finale, Friday’s second practice was a crucial session.

Martin won this particular battle by ending up second behind Aprilia’s Vinales, who posted a new lap record of 1m29.142s to end the day fastest of all.

Bagnaia could only manage 15th after his final lap was scuppered by yellow flags for a crash, though he impeded himself further by getting involved in gamesmanship with title rival Martin.

The session began with Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio setting the early pace with a 1m30.076s on his year-old Ducati as he looks to secure his MotoGP future for 2024 with VR46 Ducati.

Then followed three crashes in quick succession, with Aleix Espargaro, Marco Bezzecchi and Augusto Fernandez coming off at Turns 1, 8 and 14 respectively.

Moments later, LCR Honda’s Alex Rins would add himself to the crash heap at Turn 1 while Di Giannantonio improved to a 1m29.924s.

Di Giannantonio would eke out more time on his Gresini Ducati to a 1m29.805s with just under 38 minutes of the hour-long session to go.

Honda’s Marc Marquez then took over 10 minutes later with a 1m29.465s as he went early onto a fresh soft rear tyre for a time attack.

Martin employed the same tactic, posting a 1m29.464s a few minutes later, before Vinales shot to the top of the order with a 1m29.392s to break Jorge Lorenzo’s lap record from 2016.

With just under 15 minutes to go, the session was briefly red-flagged after Jack Miller crashed his KTM heavily going through Turn 3 and left a bit of debris on the racing line.

The stoppage was only brief, with Martin following Bagnaia out of the pitlane when the session restarted.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Both were on good laps when Bagnaia bailed into pitlane with just under 10 minutes to go, Martin in tow.

When they left pitlane again, Martin exited his box very close to Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi as he looked to hook onto the back of Bagnaia.

There was almost a collision between the pair when Bagnaia braked for Turn 1 at pit-exit, with Martin narrowly avoiding running into the back of the factory team Ducati.

Bagnaia was able to put Gresini’s Alex Marquez between himself and Martin, but when the former ran off at Turn 8 his title rival followed him.

And when Pol Espargaro crashed at Turn 3 at the end of the session, Bagnaia had to abort his final flying lap having not done enough on his previous effort to crack the top 10.

Vinales found a 1m29.142s to lead Martin and his Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco, while Di Giannantonio was fourth from VR46’s Bezzecchi.

Brad Binder completed the top six on his KTM from Marc Marquez, RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez – who had a late crash at Turn 1 – Miller and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Enea Bastianini missed out on a Q2 place by 0.002s on his factory team Ducati ahead of Alex Marquez and the Yamaha pairing of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli.

They will join Bagnaia in Q1 on Saturday morning.

Honda’s Joan Mir was a non-starter in second practice following his FP1 crash on Friday morning, and will be assessed ahead of Saturday’s running to determine his further participation.

MotoGP Valencia GP - FP2 results:

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 27

1'29.142

  161.741  
2 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 24

+0.147

1'29.289

0.147 161.475  
3 France J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 26

+0.154

1'29.296

0.007 161.462  
4 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 23

+0.253

1'29.395

0.099 161.284  
5 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 22

+0.254

1'29.396

0.001 161.282  
6 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 27

+0.260

1'29.402

0.006 161.271  
7 Spain M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 27

+0.317

1'29.459

0.057 161.168  
8 Spain R. Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 25

+0.328

1'29.470

0.011 161.148  
9 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 20

+0.339

1'29.481

0.011 161.129  
10 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 16

+0.429

1'29.571

0.090 160.967  
11 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 25

+0.431

1'29.573

0.002 160.963  
12 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 25

+0.472

1'29.614

0.041 160.890  
13 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 27

+0.473

1'29.615

0.001 160.888  
14 Italy F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 23

+0.633

1'29.775

0.160 160.601  
15 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 21

+0.659

1'29.801

0.026 160.555  
16 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 24

+0.860

1'30.002

0.201 160.196  
17 Italy L. Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 27

+1.201

1'30.343

0.341 159.591  
18 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 24

+1.303

1'30.445

0.102 159.411  
19 Spain A. Rins Team LCR 42 Honda 18

+1.322

1'30.464

0.019 159.378  
20 Italy L. Savadori RNF Racing 32 Aprilia 24

+1.653

1'30.795

0.331 158.797  
21 Spain P. Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 22

+1.798

1'30.940

0.145 158.544  
22 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 0

 

     
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