Dovizioso leads Vinales in Thailand, Lorenzo suffers huge high-side

Full MotoGP FP2 results from Thailand

Andrea Dovizioso has edged out FP1’s fastest rider Maverick Vinales to take top spot on Friday practice at Buriram for the inaugural Thailand MotoGP round, while Jorge Lorenzo suffered a nasty high-side off which triggered a red-flag stoppage.

The Italian rider produced a late flying lap to grab the headlines with a 1m 31.090s to beat Vinales by just 0.031s using new soft front and rear tyres with the Movistar Yamaha setting his best lap time on hard front and rear tyres.

With Sunday’s race taking place at the same time of day as Friday’s FP2, the majority of the riders targeted race pace in extremely hot conditions at the Thai track, with Dovizioso also impressing over a long run for Ducati.

Midway through FP2 Dovizioso’s team-mate Lorenzo was thrown into a massive high-side under braking for the Turn 3 hairpin, with his Ducati’s engine appearing to seize causing the rear wheel to lock which fired the Spaniard over the handlebars.

Lorenzo was taken to the medical centre as a precaution, stretchered off track with close attention to his already-injured right foot from his Aragon crash, with his Ducati completely destroyed, breaking into several parts in the accident.

Just minutes after Lorenzo’s off, Avintia Ducati’s Xavier Simoen crashed at the same spot and was waving furiously having fallen on suspected oil dropped in Lorenzo's off. The session was immediately red flagged for a track clear up at Turn 3.

After a 10-minute suspension the session resumed for the final 12 minutes to set up some late time attacks which saw Dovizioso edge out Vinales.

Cal Crutchlow’s last quick lap pushed him up to third place for LCR Honda ahead of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, who opted not to hunt a fast late lap, with Danilo Petrucci taking fifth place for Pramac Ducati despite suffering a technical issue early in FP2.

Andrea Iannone grabbed sixth place for Suzuki after a fast lowside fall at Turn 4, following a similar incident Scott Redding suffered on the Aprilia earlier in the session, with Alvaro Bautista ending the session in seventh for Angel Nieto Ducati after crashing at the end of FP2 at Turn 3.

Dani Pedrosa, who topped the Buriram pre-season test in February, secured a provisional automatic Q2 spot in eighth place for Repsol Honda with Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) rounding out the top ten.

The factory Yamaha squad debuted a new aerodynamic fairing with both Vinales and Rossi trailing the new design in FP2.

Jack Miller was the unlucky 11^th-placed rider to narrowly miss out on the provisional Q2 spots for Pramac Ducati ahead of Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda).

Bradley Smith led the Red Bull KTM charge in 14^th ahead of Alex Rins (Suzuki) which saw Lorenzo relegated down to 16^th after missing the final part of FP2.

Pol Espargaro returned to action for Red Bull KTM following his collarbone break in Misano last month, ending the session down in 20^th, while Jordi Torres claimed 24^th for Avintia Ducati as a replacement rider for the injured Tito Rabat.