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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP Indonesian GP: Espargaro leads Aprilia 1-2 in second practice

A hectic hour of running to conclude Friday at the Mandalika track concluded with Espargaro firing in a new all-time lap record of 1m30.474s in the closing seconds.

This deposed VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi, who underwent surgery on a broken collarbone five days ago and only turned up to Lombok this morning, after the Italian went top with 10 minutes remaining.

He would end up third behind Maverick Vinales on the sister factory Aprilia, while Brad Binder recovered from an early tangle to finish fourth.

Championship leader Bagnaia endured a tough Friday on his factory Ducati and could only go 16th in the second practice.

On target to set a top 10 lap to get directly into qualifying Q2 on his last effort, a mistake at the third-to-last corner resigned him to his first Q1 appearance since the Spanish GP.

The early pace in the hour-long second practice was set by Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, who found out on Thursday that he will be moved aside for Marc Marquez next year.

Di Giannantonio’s time stood firm for around 10 minutes before Aleix Espargaro made his first play for the top of the times with a 1m31.783s, which he duly improved to a 1m31.466s.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Team-mate Vinales then took over with a 1m31.351s, before Espargaro found more pace with a 1m31.347s inside the first 15 minutes of the session.

This would keep the Aprilia rider top of the order until the session ticked into its final 15 minutes, when he produced a 1m31.088s to strengthen his position.

Seconds later, Espargaro slid off his RS-GP at Turn 10. At the same time, Vinales went top with a 1m30.853s before Bezzecchi stunned on his year-old Ducati with a 1m30.644s.

Despite his tumble, Espargaro rebounded to post a 1m30.474s with just over a minute remaining, which cemented him top spot by 0.154s from Vinales.

Binder was the unfortunate victim in a crash for fellow KTM rider Augusto Fernandez at the start of the session, when the Tech3 rider slid off his bike at Turn 11 and collected the South African as he ran off track.

Both were unharmed, with Binder finishing the session fourth ahead of form-man Jorge Martin on his Pramac Ducati.

Marc Marquez was sixth on his factory Honda ahead of his rumoured replacement Miguel Oliveira (RNF Aprilia) and Di Giannantonio.

Jack Miller on the sister factory KTM was ninth despite crashing twice in second practice, while Fabio Quartararo completed the top 10 for Yamaha.

Pol Espargaro missed out on a Q2 place by 0.047s on his Tech3 GasGas ahead of the returning Luca Marini (VR46) following his injury woes in India.

Johann Zarco (Pramac) also missed the Q2 cut, as did RNF’s Raul Fernandez and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli – all of whom besting Bagnaia in 16th.

Honda’s Joan Mir was trailing Bagnaia on his final flying lap when the Ducati rider made his mistake, with the Spaniard crashing at the same corner and leaving himself in 19th.

Enea Bastianini and Alex Rins, both returning from injury, completed the depleted 21-rider field after Alex Marquez withdrew from the remainder of the weekend due to pain in his recently-fractured ribs.

MotoGP Indonesian GP FP2 results

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 23 1'30.474   171.496  
2 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 25 +0.154 0.154 171.205  
3 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 25 +0.170 0.016 171.175  
4 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 19 +0.288 0.118 170.952  
5 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 27 +0.400 0.112 170.741  
6 Spain M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 26 +0.632 0.232 170.307  
7 Portugal M. Oliveira RNF Racing 88 Aprilia 26 +0.725 0.093 170.133  
8 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 22 +0.733 0.008 170.118  
9 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 22 +0.742 0.009 170.101  
10 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 26 +0.755 0.013 170.077  
11 Spain P. Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 23 +0.802 0.047 169.989  
12 Italy L. Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 20 +0.893 0.091 169.820  
13 France J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 24 +0.983 0.090 169.653  
14 Spain R. Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 25 +1.026 0.043 169.573  
15 Italy F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 23 +1.087 0.061 169.460  
16 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 23 +1.161 0.074 169.323  
17 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 27 +1.181 0.020 169.287  
18 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 23 +1.332 0.151 169.008  
19 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 21 +1.653 0.321 168.419  
20 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 20 +1.734 0.081 168.271  
21 Spain A. Rins Team LCR 42 Honda 20 +1.952 0.218 167.874  
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