Quartararo pushes Marquez off top spot

Full Czech Republic MotoGP FP2 results from Brno

Fabio Quartararo has knocked Marc Marquez off top spot in the second free practice session at the Czech Republic MotoGP with a flying late lap at Brno.

Quartararo pushes Marquez off top spot

Full Czech Republic MotoGP FP2 results from Brno

Fabio Quartararo has knocked Marc Marquez off top spot in the second free practice session at the Czech Republic MotoGP with a flying late lap at Brno.

With the familiar time attacks taking place over the final 10 minutes of FP2, Marquez initially led proceedings with a 1m 55.825s but the Repsol Honda rider saw his lap displaced by the standout MotoGP rookie of 2019 in the final two minutes.

Quartararo, pole-sitter at Jerez, Montmelo and Assen, edged ahead of Marquez on his penultimate lap by just 0.023s to take the headline-grabbing time from the reigning MotoGP world champion.

With FP3 forecast to be hit by rain tomorrow morning, the whole MotoGP grid prioritised a late fast lap on the soft tyres to secure a top 10 and automatic Q2 spot.

That saw Jack Miller surge to third place on the Pramac Ducati ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, the fastest rider in FP1 for Ducati, with Maverick Vinales rounding out the top five for Monster Yamaha.

Alex Rins produced a similar charge to take sixth place for Suzuki ahead of Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas Yamaha and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.

Valentino Rossi held on to ninth place on the Monster Yamaha in ninth place despite suffering a mid-session technical issue with his M1. Smoke was spotted coming out of Rossi’s Yamaha which forced the Italian to limp back to the pits to jump on his second bike for the remainder of FP2.

Danilo Petrucci clung on to the final top 10 spot for Ducati just ahead of Joan Mir for Suzuki as Takaaki Nakagami tumbled down the order to 12th place following a late fall towards the end of the session for LCR Honda.

Miguel Oliveira came close to following up his impressive FP1 effort, having ended the morning session in fourth place, as the Tech3 KTM rider claimed 13th place ahead of Stefan Bradl who is standing in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo at Repsol Honda.

Aleix Espargaro claimed 15th place after recovering from an early FP2 front-end fall at the chicane on the Aprilia as he kept in front of Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat and Suzuki wildcard and test rider Sylvain Guintoli.

With Andrea Iannone in 18th place for Aprilia, it proved a tough session for the KTM riders with Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) in 19th , Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM) in 20th and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM) in 22nd.

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