Dovizioso under lap record to head up Marquez in FP2
Full FP2 results from French MotoGP at Le Mans
Fresh from signing a new Ducati deal, Andrea Dovizioso has gone fastest on Friday practice at Le Mans ahead of Marc Marquez while the Yamaha riders show a return to form.
Full FP2 results from French MotoGP at Le Mans
Fresh from signing a new Ducati deal, Andrea Dovizioso has gone fastest on Friday practice at Le Mans ahead of Marc Marquez while the Yamaha riders show a return to form.
The Italian rider has secured a new Ducati contract which will tie him to the team until 2020 and celebrated the deal with a fastest-ever lap around the Bugatti circuit with a 1m 31.917s on his penultimate lap to top the times.
Marquez, who topped the early running in FP2, avoided some hairy moments folding the front to fight back to take second place on the times less than one-tenth of a second off Dovizioso.
Valentino Rossi led the Yamaha resurgence at a favoured track from recent seasons by taking third place on the times fractionally ahead of teammate Maverick Vinales, while local favourite Johann Zarco also produced a promising start to his race weekend in fifth place for Monster Yamaha Tech 3.
Jack Miller placed his Pramac Ducati sixth on the FP2 times ahead of KTM’s Pol Espargaro, who continues to demonstrate the Austrian brand’s improvements, with Dani Pedrosa skating into the provisional Q2 spots with a late lap to take eighth on the Repsol Honda.
Aleix Espargaro saw Aprilia fight into the top 10 just ahead of Jorge Lorenzo as Cal Crutchlow narrowly missed out in 11th place for LCR Honda after a late crash at Turn 7.
KTM’s Espargaro, Scott Redding (Aprilia) and Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) all suffered early falls in the session, followed by Danilo Petrucci for Pramac Ducati and Taakai Nakagami for LCR Honda, with the latter hobbling away off track.
