MotoGP Qatar Free Practice 2 results

Aleix Espargaro continues his hot streak to top the leaderboard

Well, two aspects of performance for the MotoGP grid at the Losail circuit in Qatar remained for the second free practice: NGM Forward Racing's Aleix Espargaro continued his torrid pace at the front to be the only rider to dip into the 1:54 range and lead the field on his Open class Yamaha, and the Factory class machines continued to struggle with grip issues on the harder option tires they are forced to use. Although all the Factory riders were having problems, the least happy was surely Jorge Lorenzo, who languished down in 11th spot on the lap charts. Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammate Valentino Rossi was only slightly quicker, his 1:55.984 lap only 0.188 seconds ahead. The Repsol Honda pair of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez made some improvements, but both were still more than half a second behind the speedy Espargaro. Ducati's Andrea Dovisioso made use of the softer tire option available to his "Open" class team to turn a quick lap that put him in second spot, while GO&FUN Honda Gresini's Alvaro Bautista continued to hover in the top three, turning quick laps on the medium option tire.

The third free practice for MotoGP has just got underway, so it will be interesting to see if the factory teams are able to find a solution, as practice order determines who gets into qualifying tomorrow.

Pos. Rider Country Team Machine Time
1 Aleix Espargaro SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1:54.989
2 Andrea Dovisioso ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1:55.320
3 Alvaro Bautista SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 1:55.446
4 Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1:55.562
5 Marc Marquez SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1:55.607
6 Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1:55.650
7 Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1:55.856
8 Pol Espargaro SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1:55.913
9 Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1:55.984
10 Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 1:56.006
11 Jorge Lorenzo SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1:56.172
12 Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1:56.238
13 Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team Ducati 1:56.720
14 Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 1:57.006
15 Yonny Hernandez COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 1:57.119
16 Scott Redding GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 1:57.296
17 Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 1:57.368
18 Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 1:57.634
19 Hector Barbera SPA Avintia Racing FTR/Kawasaki 1:58.290
20 Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing FTR/Kawasaki 1:58.410
21 Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport ART/Aprilia 1:58.436
22 Danilo Petrucci ITA Ioda Racing Project Ioda/Aprilia 1:59.078
23 Michael Laverty IRL Paul Bird Motorsport ART/Aprilia 1:59.646