MotoGP

MotoGP Valencia GP: Vinales tops second practice, Bagnaia in Q1 for finale

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4m ago

Nov 24, 2023 / 3946 Views

With 21 points splitting factory Ducati rider Bagnaia and Pramac’s Martin coming into this weekend’s finale, Friday’s second practice was a crucial session.

Martin won this particular battle by ending up second behind Aprilia’s Vinales, who posted a new lap record of 1m29.142s to end the day fastest of all.

Bagnaia could only manage 15th after his final lap was scuppered by yellow flags for a crash, though he impeded himself further by getting involved in Gamesmanship with title rival Martin.

The session began with Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio setting the early pace with a 1m30.076s on his year-old Ducati as he looks to secure his MotoGP future for 2024 with VR46 Ducati.

Then followed three crashes in quick succession, with Aleix Espargaro, Marco Bezzecchi and Augusto Fernandez coming off at Turns 1, 8 and 14 respectively.

Moments later, LCR Honda’s Alex Rins would add himself to the crash heap at Turn 1 while Di Giannantonio improved to a 1m29.924s.

Di Giannantonio would eke out more time on his Gresini Ducati to a 1m29.805s with just under 38 minutes of the hour-long session to go.

Honda’s Marc Marquez then took over 10 minutes later with a 1m29.465s as he went early onto a fresh soft rear tyre for a time attack.

Martin employed the same tactic, posting a 1m29.464s a few minutes later, before Vinales shot to the top of the order with a 1m29.392s to break Jorge Lorenzo’s lap record from 2016.

With just under 15 minutes to go, the session was briefly red-flagged after Miller crashed his KTM heavily going through Turn 3 and left a bit of debris on the racing line.

The stoppage was only brief, with Martin following Bagnaia out of pitlane when the session restarted.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Both were on good laps when Bagnaia bailed into pitlane with just under 10 minutes to go, Martin in tow.

When they left pitlane again, Martin exited his box very close to Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi as he looked to hook onto the back of Bagnaia.

There was almost a collision between the pair when Bagnaia braked for Turn 1 at pit-exit, with Martin narrowly avoiding running into the back of the factory team Ducati rider.

Bagnaia was able to put Gresini’s Alex Marquez between himself and Martin, but when Marquez ran off at Turn 8 his title rival followed him.

And when Pol Espargaro crashed at Turn 3 at the end of the session, Bagnaia had to abort his final flying lap having not done enough on his previous effort to crack the top 10.

Vinales found a 1m29.142s to lead Martin and his Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco, while Di Giannantonio was fourth from VR46’s Bezzecchi.

Brad Binder completed the top six on his KTM from Marc Marquez, RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez – who had a late crash at Turn 1 – Miller and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Enea Bastianini missed out on a Q2 place by 0.002s on his factory team Ducati ahead of Alex Marquez and the Yamaha pairing of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli.

They will join Bagnaia in Q1 on Saturday morning.

Honda’s Joan Mir was a non-starter in second practice following his FP1 crash on Friday morning, and will be assessed ahead of Saturday’s running to determine his further participation.

MotoGP Valencia GP - FP2 results:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	27	1'29.142		161.741
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	24	+0.147 1'29.289	0.147	161.475
3	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	26	+0.154 1'29.296	0.007	161.462
4	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	23	+0.253 1'29.395	0.099	161.284
5	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	22	+0.254 1'29.396	0.001	161.282
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	27	+0.260 1'29.402	0.006	161.271
7	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	27	+0.317 1'29.459	0.057	161.168
8	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	25	+0.328 1'29.470	0.011	161.148
9	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	20	+0.339 1'29.481	0.011	161.129
10	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	16	+0.429 1'29.571	0.090	160.967
11	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	25	+0.431 1'29.573	0.002	160.963
12	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	25	+0.472 1'29.614	0.041	160.890
13	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	27	+0.473 1'29.615	0.001	160.888
14	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	23	+0.633 1'29.775	0.160	160.601
15	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	21	+0.659 1'29.801	0.026	160.555
16	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	24	+0.860 1'30.002	0.201	160.196
17	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	27	+1.201 1'30.343	0.341	159.591
18	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	24	+1.303 1'30.445	0.102	159.411
19	A. Rins Team LCR	42	Honda	18	+1.322 1'30.464	0.019	159.378
20	L. Savadori RNF Racing	32	Aprilia	24	+1.653 1'30.795	0.331	158.797
21	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	22	+1.798 1'30.940	0.145	158.544
22	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	0
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