Vinales sets pace in FP2
Maverick Vinales headed the times on the Movistar Yamaha to lead the way on the opening day of free practice for the Dutch MotoGP at Assen.
Vinales, second in the morning session behind Marc Marquez, climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1m 33.378s on the factory M1, heading off Ecstar Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone by 0.121s who improved from sixth place in FP1.
Maverick Vinales headed the times on the Movistar Yamaha to lead the way on the opening day of free practice for the Dutch MotoGP at Assen.
Vinales, second in the morning session behind Marc Marquez, climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1m 33.378s on the factory M1, heading off Ecstar Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone by 0.121s who improved from sixth place in FP1.
Italian Danilo Petrucci slotted into third as the fastest Ducati for the Pramac team with a time of 1m 33.764s, leaving him almost four tenths down on Vinales.
Next up was last year’s Assen winner Valentino Rossi on the second of the Movistar Yamaha machines, who lapped in 1m 33.779s to take fourth, only 0.033s ahead of LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow.
Factory Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were sixth and seventh respectively, while FP1 pacesetter Marquez dropped to eighth on the Repsol Honda. Marquez lapped in 1m 34.041s, which left him six tenths behind Vinales, although the reigning champion ran the hard/hard Michelin tyres and did not focus on setting a fast lap, opting instead to concentrate on race pace.
Marquez took to the gravel after a spectacular 200km/h save on the RCV.
Alex Rins on the second of the factory Suzuki GSX-RR machines and Frenchman Johann Zarco (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha) completed the top ten. Zarco slid off into the gravel with 15 minutes of the session remaining.
Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha) was the top rookie in 12th overall after initially making it into the top ten, only just behind Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) by 0.079s.
Along with Pedrosa, Jack Miller faces the prospect of missing out on automatic qualification for Q2 if he is unable to improve in FP3. Miller was 16th fastest in FP2 on the Alma Pramac Ducati behind Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia), an Angel Nieto Ducati riders Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham.
Red Bull KTM riders Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro were 18th and 19th respectively behind Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati).
