Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Mugello MotoGP: Cal Crutchlow fastest in second Friday practice

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow beat Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso to set the pace in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, as MotoGP championship leader Maverick Vinales crashed

While the morning's first session at Mugello was incident free, Vinales was one of three riders to come unstuck inside the opening 15 minutes in the afternoon.

Aprilia had the first two, with Aleix Espargaro and Sam Lowes both crashing in the space of two torrid minutes, a little over 10 minutes into the session.

Vinales went down at Arrabbiata 2 shortly afterwards while second in the order, losing the front end on the kerb turning in.

The Spaniard retreated to his enclave within the Yamaha truck when he returned to the paddock, and finally rejoined the session with 10 minutes remaining.

Focusing on the harder tyres, Vinales fell down the order from fifth and did not improve until his final lap and even then only fractionally.

He finished in 13th place, between team-mate Valentino Rossi - nursing chest injuries from his motocross accident eight days ago - and Marc Marquez.

Like Vinales, reigning world champion Marquez opted not to use the soft rear tyre at all during the 45 minutes.

Vinales and then Alvaro Bautista led the way during the early stages, the Aspar Ducati rider then displaced by Dovizioso at the top with just over 20 minutes remaining.

First-practice pacesetter Dovizioso turned a 1m47.864s and then a 1m47.526s to sit 0.173 seconds clear of Honda's Dani Pedrosa when riders started their new-tyre runs.

The first and ultimately only rider to lap faster than Dovizioso was Crutchlow with a 1m47.365s set with three minutes remaining.

Crutchlow finished 0.161s ahead of Dovizioso, while Tech3 Yamaha rookies Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco improved late to finish third and fourth, ahead of Pedrosa.

Avintia Ducati's Hector Barbera took sixth, ahead of Bautista, Suzuki's Andrea Iannone, Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro and Danilo Petrucci, whose Pramac Ducati stopped on track in the opening stages.

Jorge Lorenzo wound up 11th, 0.589s off top spot, having improved on new tyres in his final run.

Of the Aprilia riders, Espargaro got back out inside the final 10 minutes and finished 16th - the last of the riders within one second of Crutchlow - four spots ahead of Lowes.

With his second bike sidelined by a fuel-pump problem, Lowes was not able to rejoin the session and finished with just five laps on the board.

PRACTICE TWO RESULTS:

Pos Rider Team Time Gap Laps
1 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 1m47.365s - 18
2 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m47.526s 0.161s 18
3 Jonas Folger Tech3 Yamaha 1m47.543s 0.178s 16
4 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha 1m47.685s 0.320s 19
5 Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m47.699s 0.334s 19
6 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati 1m47.710s 0.345s 18
7 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati 1m47.728s 0.363s 20
8 Andrea Iannone Suzuki 1m47.807s 0.442s 19
9 Michele Pirro Ducati 1m47.883s 0.518s 17
10 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati 1m47.950s 0.585s 15
11 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 1m47.954s 0.589s 18
12 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m48.000s 0.635s 19
13 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1m48.014s 0.649s 13
14 Marc Marquez Honda 1m48.103s 0.738s 21
15 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati 1m48.111s 0.746s 18
16 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1m48.129s 0.764s 17
17 Jack Miller MVDS Honda 1m48.560s 1.195s 19
18 Tito Rabat MVDS Honda 1m48.664s 1.299s 20
19 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati 1m48.751s 1.386s 15
20 Sam Lowes Aprilia 1m48.842s 1.477s 5
21 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati 1m48.925s 1.560s 17
22 Pol Espargaro KTM 1m49.524s 2.159s 18
23 Bradley Smith KTM 1m49.640s 2.275s 17
24 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 1m50.054s 2.689s 18


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Mugello MotoGP: Dovizoso leads Ducati one-two in practice one
Next article Mugello MotoGP race is Andrea Dovizioso's to lose - Cal Crutchlow

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe