MotoGP

MotoGP Qatar GP: Fernandez tops second practice after late yellow flag chaos

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5m ago

Nov 18, 2023 / 2169 Views

The only night practice of the Qatar weekend proved to be a tight affair, as Fernandez on his year-old Aprilia edged ahead of Gresini Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio by 0.049 seconds after an hour of running.

Maverick Vinales had been set to end second practice fastest of all with a new lap record, but the Aprilia rider had his 1m52.652s deleted due to setting it under yellow flags after several late crashes.

A number of riders got caught out by the late yellow flags, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo slumping from eighth to 21st as a result.

Both title challengers Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin made it through to Q2 for Saturday’s qualifying, with the latter edging ahead in seventh despite a scrappy session as he battled a lack of grip.

Di Giannantonio set the early pace in second practice on Friday evening with a 1m55.338s, before Raul Fernandez moved clear with a 1m55.093s inside the first five minutes of running.

Pol Espargaro dipped into the 1m54s with a 1m54.567s a few moments later, before Fernandez found a 1m54.309s.

A 1m54.148s from Vinales on his factory Aprilia ended the initial salvo of session-topping laps just over 13 minutes in.

Miguel Oliveira on the second RNF Aprilia would finally depose Vinales with a 1m54.005s with just over half an hour to go, before the latter popped in a 1m53.340s on a new soft rear tyre.

Vinales’ first soft tyre run didn’t quite bring about a sudden flurry of time attacks, but 10 minutes later the rest of the field would follow suit.

Di Giannantonio got the ball rolling with a 1m52.892s to get close to Bagnaia’s 2021 lap record of 1m52.772s, with Fernandez finding 0.049s with 12 minutes to go to take over top spot.

Vinales would fire in a 1m52.652s to break the lap record with just under two minutes until the chequered flag, but would be demoted to third as he set this under yellow flag conditions.

This was for a crash for Pol Espargaro at the final corner while the Tech3 rider was on a good lap, and it would cause problems for a number of riders – including Bagnaia.

Bagnaia at the same time had posted a lap good enough for fourth, with Honda’s Marc Marquez in tow to jump up the order with the Ducati rider.

They would be shoved back to the outer reaches of the top 10 for their final laps.

Both were lucky to avoid a yellow flag zone for Jack Miller’s second crash of the night, with Bagnaia going eighth-fastest ahead of Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez and Marquez on the Honda.

Brad Binder ended the session fourth on the leading KTM from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, while Luca Marini leapt up to sixth on his VR46 Ducati.

Martin was seventh having been last at the halfway point of the session, as grip issues forced him to abandon his number one Pramac Ducati for his second bike.

Miller’s crash left the KTM rider out of the Q2 places in 11th, with the KTM rider heading Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli behind.

Pol Espargaro was 14th after his crash, with Marco Bezzecchi losing a lap time to yellow flags in 15th on his VR46 Ducati.

Malaysian GP winner Enea Bastianini could only manage 18th on his factory Ducati behind Honda’s Joan Mir, with Oliveira slipping down to 19th due to yellow flags.

LCR Honda’s Iker Lecuona headed Quartararo after his yellow flag-caused lap deletion, with the sister LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami completing the field.

MotoGP Qatar GP - FP2 results:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	20	1'52.843		171.636
2	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	18	+0.049 1'52.892	0.049	171.562
3	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	19	+0.093 1'52.936	0.044	171.495
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	20	+0.112 1'52.955	0.019	171.466
5	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	19	+0.190 1'53.033	0.078	171.348
6	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	26	+0.251 1'53.094	0.061	171.255
7	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	21	+0.352 1'53.195	0.101	171.102
8	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	19	+0.359 1'53.202	0.007	171.092
9	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	21	+0.446 1'53.289	0.087	170.960
10	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	20	+0.480 1'53.323	0.034	170.909
11	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	18	+0.494 1'53.337	0.014	170.888
12	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	20	+0.718 1'53.561	0.224	170.551
13	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	18	+0.721 1'53.564	0.003	170.547
14	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	14	+0.853 1'53.696	0.132	170.349
15	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	23	+0.861 1'53.704	0.008	170.337
16	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	16	+0.935 1'53.778	0.074	170.226
17	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	16	+1.078 1'53.921	0.143	170.012
18	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	22	+1.094 1'53.937	0.016	169.988
19	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	20	+1.162 1'54.005	0.068	169.887
20	I. Lecuona Team LCR	27	Honda	22	+1.411 1'54.254	0.249	169.517
21	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	20	+1.417 1'54.260	0.006	169.508
22	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	22	+1.598 1'54.441	0.181	169.240
View full results