Quartararo leads Vinales as Rossi falls again in FP2

Full Valencia MotoGP FP2 results

Fabio Quartararo has edged Maverick Vinales to lead after Friday practice at the MotoGP season finale in Valencia, while Valentino Rossi suffered his second fall of the day.

The Petronas Yamaha rider produced his customary late time attack in the closing minutes of FP2 to notch up a 1m 30.735s which displaced Vinales from the top of the times by 0.148s on the Monster Energy Yamaha.

But on the other side of the factory Yamaha garage it was a tough day for Rossi as he endured a high-speed crash at Turn 10 to follow-up his earlier fall at Turn 4 in FP1.

The off cost the 40-year-old over 20 minutes of lost track time in FP2 which meant Rossi was relegated to 14^th place on the combined times.

Marc Marquez once again resisted a qualifying-style run towards the end of the second session meaning the Repsol Honda rider was edged back to third place but kept ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller who impressed having finished FP1 in second place.

Franco Morbidelli also kept up his top five charge for Petronas Yamaha in front of a resurgent Suzuki duo of Alex Rins in sixth and Joan Mir in seventh.

Aleix Espargarao led the Aprilia charge in eighth place with Andrea Dovizioso in ninth place for Ducati despite having his afternoon session disrupted by a fluid leak from his GP19.

Johann Zarco has continued to impress on his LCR Honda stand-in opportunity by taking 10^th place at the end of FP2 ahead of team-mate Cal Crutchlow. Zarco makes his final appearance as replacement rider for the injured Takaaki Nakagami who has missed the end of this season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Danilo Petrucci is still struggling to break into the top 10 in 12^th place for Ducati and just in front of the Italian team’s wildcard Michele Pirro with Rossi down in 14^th place.

Francesco Bagnaia found useful gains in FP2 for Pramac Ducati to take 15^th place ahead of Repsol Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo on his final career outing after announcing his shock retirement yesterday.

Pol Espargaro ended FP2 down in 17^th place for Red Bull KTM but he did lead Avintia Ducati duo Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham with his KTM team-mate Mika Kallio in 20^th.

Andrea Iannone could only reach 21^st place for Aprilia but ahead of Red Bull Tech3 KTM duo Hafizh Syahrin and Iker Lecuona, with the 19-year-old making his MotoGP debut this weekend filling in for the injured Miguel Oliveira.