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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.

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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