Valencia MotoGP: Marquez fastest again in practice two

Momentum swung several times between the rookie, his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, and his championship rival Jorge Lorenzo.

Once again it was the Yamaha man who started the session fastest, only to be denied as Honda's works duo dominated the second half.

Marquez kicked off the charge with 20 minutes remaining, was demoted by Pedrosa, and then reclaimed top spot five minutes from the finish with a 1m31.220s.

That left the 20-year-old - who needs to finish fourth or higher to guarantee himself this year's crown - just over six hundredths of a second clear of Pedrosa.

More importantly for his championship ambitions, it also put him 0.158s ahead of Lorenzo.

The latter's Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi had been on the frontrunning pace in the early stages, but couldn't match the improvements of the top three and finished the session four tenths of a second down the road.

That allowed Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow to steal ahead in the final minutes to secure fourth for Yamaha's satellite squad.

The Briton then fell on his final lap, although he was instantly on his feet after losing the rear of his bike at Turn 11, the slowest corner of the circuit.

LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl beat fellow Honda satellite rider Alvaro Bautista to sixth - just 0.015s to choose between the pair at the flag - with Bradley Smith, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden rounding out the top 10.

Aleix Espargaro finished top of the CRT pile in 13th, but like Crutchlow suffered a fall - his coming five minutes from the end at Turn 12.

Pos Rider               Bike                      Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Marc Marquez        Honda                     1m31.220s            20
 2. Dani Pedrosa        Honda                     1m31.286s  +0.066s   22
 3. Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                    1m31.378s  +0.158s   19
 4. Cal Crutchlow       Tech 3 Yamaha             1m31.502s  +0.282s   22
 5. Valentino Rossi     Yamaha                    1m31.639s  +0.419s   24
 6. Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda                 1m31.858s  +0.638s   22
 7. Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda             1m31.873s  +0.653s   22
 8. Bradley Smith       Tech 3 Yamaha             1m31.984s  +0.764s   23
 9. Andrea Dovizioso    Ducati                    1m32.363s  +1.143s   21
10. Nicky Hayden        Ducati                    1m32.395s  +1.175s   21
11. Andrea Iannone      Pramac Ducati             1m32.596s  +1.376s   22
12. Michele Pirro       Pramac Ducati             1m32.756s  +1.536s   20
13. Aleix Espargaro     Aspar Aprilia             1m32.809s  +1.589s   11
14. Claudio Corti       Forward FTR-Kawasaki      1m33.172s  +1.952s   19
15. Colin Edwards       Forward FTR-Kawasaki      1m33.252s  +2.032s   22
16. Hector Barbera      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m33.270s  +2.050s   20
17. Danilo Petrucci     Ioda-Suter-BMW            1m33.304s  +2.084s   21
18. Yonny Hernandez     Pramac Ducati             1m33.487s  +2.267s   21
19. Randy de Puniet     Aspar Aprilia             1m33.727s  +2.507s   20
20. Luca Scassa         Cardion Aprilia           1m34.049s  +2.829s   19
21. Hiroshi Aoyama      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m34.077s  +2.857s   14
22. Michael Laverty     PBM Aprilia               1m34.132s  +2.912s   21
23. Bryan Staring       Gresini FTR-Honda         1m35.478s  +4.258s   21
24. Damian Cudlin       PBM-Aprilia               1m35.644s  +4.424s   16
25. Martin Bauer        Remus-Suter-BMW           1m35.832s  +4.612s   19
26. Lukas Pesek         Ioda-Suter-BMW            1m36.353s  +5.133s   15