Quartararo tops Thailand MotoGP FP2 as Marquez returns from crash
Fabio Quartararo led an all-Yamaha 1-2-3 in the second MotoGP free practice session for the Thailand Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez returned to action following his heavy FP1 crash
Marquez was hospitalised after a hefty crash in FP1, but was straight out on track as FP2 began and beat Maverick Vinales' morning benchmark of 1m30.979s within three laps.
The Honda rider's 1m30.891s gave him a huge early lead and, while several riders scrapped for second place, for 30 minutes the field was only able to close the gap to Marquez from seven to half a second.
As other riders put on new rear tyres for the late-session flyers, Valentino Rossi was the first one to threaten Marquez's lead with two low-1m31s, before his works Yamaha team-mate Vinales went fastest.
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But Vinales could not improve for the rest of the session, and was soon deposed by Quartararo, who fired in a 1m30.404s just a few seconds before the chequered flag fell.
He remained unchallenged as the field completed its last efforts, and he topped the session by 0.193s from Vinales, with his Petronas SRT team-mate Franco Morbidelli completing an all-Yamaha top three.
Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller was the best non-Yamaha rider in fourth, with Rossi completing the top five.
Marquez did not improve on his early-session time as he focused on long runs, and fell to sixth in the order with Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro taking an impressive seventh.
Factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso was eighth, while his team-mate Danilo Petrucci missed out on a provisional Q2 place by just 0.021s after late improvements for the Suzuki duo of Joan Mir and Alex Rins.
Injured KTM rider Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 15 as the fastest of the RC16 runners, while Tech3 counterpart Miguel Oliveira crashed for a second time on Friday after sliding off at the final corner in the opening stages.
Jorge Lorenzo continued to struggle for pace in Thailand, and was 1.5s off of the pace in a lowly 20th.
Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Fabio Quartararo | Petronas Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m30.404s | - | 22 |
2 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m30.597s | 0.193s | 21 |
3 | Franco Morbidelli | Petronas Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m30.625s | 0.221s | 21 |
4 | Jack Miller | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 1m30.698s | 0.294s | 18 |
5 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m30.733s | 0.329s | 21 |
6 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | 1m30.891s | 0.487s | 23 |
7 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | Aprilia | 1m31.007s | 0.603s | 18 |
8 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | 1m31.027s | 0.623s | 20 |
9 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | Suzuki | 1m31.086s | 0.682s | 18 |
10 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | Suzuki | 1m31.094s | 0.690s | 23 |
11 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | Ducati | 1m31.115s | 0.711s | 19 |
12 | Francesco Bagnaia | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 1m31.154s | 0.750s | 19 |
13 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 1m31.344s | 0.940s | 20 |
14 | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda | Honda | 1m31.424s | 1.020s | 21 |
15 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | KTM | 1m31.499s | 1.095s | 21 |
16 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia | Aprilia | 1m31.512s | 1.108s | 19 |
17 | Karel Abraham | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 1m31.588s | 1.184s | 18 |
18 | Tito Rabat | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 1m31.932s | 1.528s | 21 |
19 | Miguel Oliveira | Tech3 KTM | KTM | 1m31.936s | 1.532s | 15 |
20 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda | Honda | 1m31.949s | 1.545s | 19 |
21 | Mika Kallio | KTM | KTM | 1m31.991s | 1.587s | 20 |
22 | Hafizh Syahrin | Tech3 KTM | KTM | 1m32.584s | 2.180s | 18 |
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