Quartararo fights back against Vinales as Yamaha impress

Full Japanese MotoGP FP2 results

Fabio Quartararo has once again traded fastest lap times on Friday with Maverick Vinales to see the Petronas Yamaha rider top the times at the Japanese MotoGP.

Quartararo fights back against Vinales as Yamaha impress

Full Japanese MotoGP FP2 results

Fabio Quartararo has once again traded fastest lap times on Friday with Maverick Vinales to see the Petronas Yamaha rider top the times at the Japanese MotoGP.

The standout MotoGP rookie, who claimed victory in last year’s Moto2 race at Motegi before being disqualified for a tyre pressure infringement, duly demonstrated his strong feeling at the Japanese track with a 1m 44.764s during his late fast lap run using fresh soft tyres.

Such was the French rider’s advantage he was the only one to duck into the 1m 44s bracket and ended FP2 almost a third of a second ahead of Monster Yamaha’s Vinales.

The newly-crowned 2019 MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez kept in touch with in third place for Repsol Honda, just 0.336s off Quartararo, despite a scare from a rear-end slide coming out of Turn 5 in the closing minutes.

Andrea Dovizioso claimed fourth place but lacked the outright single lap pace of the front three for Ducati.

With dark clouds threatening overhead, along with heavy rain forecast for the rest of the weekend at Motegi, riders targeted soft tyre fast laps throughout FP2 to grab a banker in the top 10 for the provisional Q2 spots.

Valentino Rossi left it very late with his final lap to move up to fifth place for Monster Yamaha having been outside the top 10. Franco Morbidelli capped an impressive Friday for all Yamaha riders with sixth place on the Petronas Yamaha meaning all four Yamaha riders ended FP2 inside the top six.

Jack Miller held on to seventh place for Pramac Ducati despite falling on his final lap at Turn 9, with Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci taking eighth place.

Joan Mir’s own last lap saw him force out Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins with ninth place as Aleix Espargaro grabbed the final provisional Q2 place with 10th.

With Rins in 11th, Cal Crutchlow was another rider to narrowly miss out in 12th place for LCR Honda ahead of Pol Espargaro on the Red Bull KTM.

Francesco Bagnaia moved up to 14th place late on for Pramac Ducati in front of local rider Takaaki Nakagami ahead of his final race of the year for LCR Honda before undergoing shoulder surgery with Johann Zarco set to step in for the last three rounds of the season.

With Karel Abraham in 16th place for Avintia Ducati, Jorge Lorenzo’s frustrations continued at Repsol Honda down in 17th place and almost two seconds slower than pace-setter Quartararo.

Andrea Iannone grabbed 18th place for Aprilia ahead of Tech3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira who suffered a heavy fall at Turn 12 midway through FP2.

Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli completed the top 20 ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Mika Kallio, Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat and Tech3 KTM’s Hafizh Syahrin.

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