Lorenzo fastest on Friday in Catalunya

Fresh from a long-awaited debut Ducati victory, Jorge Lorenzo set the pace during Friday practice for his home Catalunya MotoGP.

The triple MotoGP champion, third in a morning session led by Valentino Rossi, powered to the top with the only sub-1m 39s lap of the day on the resurfaced and Barcelona circuit, having been one of many riders to fit new soft tyres for the closing minutes.

Lorenzo fastest on Friday in Catalunya

Fresh from a long-awaited debut Ducati victory, Jorge Lorenzo set the pace during Friday practice for his home Catalunya MotoGP.

The triple MotoGP champion, third in a morning session led by Valentino Rossi, powered to the top with the only sub-1m 39s lap of the day on the resurfaced and Barcelona circuit, having been one of many riders to fit new soft tyres for the closing minutes.

Lorenzo finished the day just 0.107s clear of Suzuki's Andrea Iannone, also on new soft slicks, with Movistar Yamaha's Maverick Vinales likewise making late progress for third after switching from medium rubber to the softs.

But reigning world champion and 2018 title leader Marc Marquez was not part of the late push, having low-sided out at Turn 4.

The referenced media source is missing and needs to be re-embedded.

The spill - while on old hard tyres, front and rear - left the Repsol Honda rider twelfth on the combined timesheets and provisionally heading for Qualifying 1.

Valentino Rossi, fastest in the morning session, was another high profile name left down the order this afternoon.

But while the Italian was only eleventh, he set his best lap with a medium rather than soft rear and his morning time was still good enough for fifth overall.

Between Vinales and Rossi in FP2 were Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati, soft-soft tyres), Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda, medium-soft), Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati, soft-soft), Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech3, soft-soft), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda, medium-soft), top rookie Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech3, soft-soft) and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati, medium-soft).

Wild-card Mika Kallio was the top KTM in 13th place, with Aleix Espargaro the lead Aprilia but only 17th overall. The Spaniard had a heated exchange of opinion with 2019 team-mate Iannone after they both ran wide at Turn 1 when he tried to overtake.

Zarco, Pol Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli joined Marquez on the FP2 accident list. Rookie Morbidelli was fortunate to walk away after a bouncing heavily through the gravel.

Click Here for the full FP2 results and combined top ten…

 

Read More