Marquez Friday double, Suzuki ends in smoke

CLICK HERE to view full Free Practice 2 results for the Valencia MotoGP.

The first day of the final MotoGP of the season ended with world champion Marc Marquez on top of the timesheets courtesy of late flying laps in both sessions.

Once again Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo led much of the afternoon 45-minutes, with Forward Yamaha's Aleix Espargaro then Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso using the soft Open class tyre to go fastest in the closing stages.

Marquez then made his push on the penultimate lap, nipping 0.104s under Dovizioso's best. However like half of the top ten the Repsol Honda rider, seeking a record 13th win of the season on Sunday, was slower than his own morning time.

Lorenzo may have been pushed down to fourth but was only 0.144s behind Marquez, with Ducati's Cal Crutchlow also using the soft rear tyre to claim fifth (+0.277s). Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) completed a top seven all within half a second of Marquez.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith, plus Lorenzo's factory Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi filled the remaining top ten places in FP2. Despite his position Rossi, seeking to defend second in the final standings from Lorenzo, was only 0.595s from Marquez.

Meanwhile the returning Suzuki team saw its first day at a MotoGP since 2011 end in a huge cloud of smoke after an engine problem for wild-card Randy de Puniet.

Suzuki's first day back in #MotoGP comes to a smokey end for Randy de Puniet at Valencia pic.twitter.com/RQKGULeMyw-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) November 7, 2014

de Puniet dropped from 16th on the new GSX-RR this morning, to 18th by the end of the afternoon, but can take encouragement from a best lap time just 1.345s from Marquez. The GSX-RR still appears to lack top speed, clocking 312.5km/h relative to 331.1km/h by Ducati's Andrea Iannone.

As a wild-card entry, Suzuki can use a maximum of three engines per event, meaning the Frenchman will have both bikes available again on Saturday.

The other new machine at Valencia, a 2015 spec Honda RC213V-RS for Hiroshi Aoyama, was 20th and 21st in the two sessions - despite a clear top speed boost relative to the former RCV1000R still being used by the other Open Honda riders.

Bridgestone's new asymmetric front tyre was tested extensively this afternoon. The new tyre had only previously been available at Phillip Island, where cold and windy conditions led to a troublesome race debut.

Free Practice 2:
1. Marc Marquez
2. Andrea Dovizioso
3. Aleix Espargaro
4. Jorge Lorenzo
5. Cal Crutchlow
6. Dani Pedrosa
7. Stefan Bradl
8. Pol Espargaro
9. Bradley Smith
10. Valentino Rossi
11. Hector Barbera
12. Michele Pirro
13. Andrea Iannone
14. Alex De Angelis
15. Yonny Hernandez
16. Karel Abraham
17. Scott Redding
18. Randy De Puniet
19. Alvaro Bautista
20. Nicky Hayden
21. Hiroshi Aoyama
22. Danilo Petrucci
23. Michael Laverty
24. Broc Parkes
25. Mike Di Meglio