MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP: Bagnaia leads Martin, Marquez in second practice
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia beat championship leader Jorge Martin in the second practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Friday.
A late effort of 1m30.286s from Bagnaia on the factory Ducati was good enough to edge out Pramac rival Martin by under two tenths of a second at Misano, as Marc Marquez took third place on the year-old GP23.
Championship protagonists Martin and Bagnaia traded the fastest times in the first quarter of the session, with Martin first to take to the top on a 1m31.325s and Bagnaia responding with a 1m31.129s.
Martin then broke the 1m32 barrier on his next flying lap, only for Bagnaia to fire back with a 1m30.924s to reclaim the top spot.
It took a second run from Martin to finally get the better of Bagnaia, the Spaniard getting down to a 1m30.884s after returning to the track on the same tyres.
A final flurry of laps followed in the final 15 minutes as all riders fit a soft tyre on the rear. Martin lowered his benchmark to 1m30.585s to extend his advantage at the front, but Bagnaia managed to find almost a quarter of a second on him to swing the session back in his favour.
The late 1m30.286s effort from Bagnaia remained unbeaten until the end of the session, partly down to Martin losing his Pramac bike into the long Turn 8 left-hander with under four minutes left on the clock.
Martin had improved to a 1m30.484s before his late tumble, putting him 0.198s down on Bagnaia’s best as the chequered flag flew at Misano.
Gresini rider Marc Marquez, who was quickest in FP1, finished another tenth adrift in third place after posting a time of 1m30.585s on the best of the GP23 bikes.
Enea Bastianini was in the drop zone with the final 10 minutes to run, but the factory Ducati rider improved to a 1m31.0607s to take fourth ahead of an impressive Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha.
Quartararo was the only representative for Yamaha in afternoon practice, with team-mate Alex Rins sitting out the session due to a high fever.
Franco Morbidelli took sixth place on the Pramac Ducati, while Marco Bezzecchi was seventh on the leading VR46 bike.
Both factory Aprilia riders earned an automated spot into Q2, with Maverick Vinales setting the eight-fastest time in second practice and team-mate Aleix Espargaro creeping up to 10th with a minute left in the session.
Tech3 KTM’s Pedro Acosta was the only rider from the KTM contingent inside the top 10 as he set the ninth-fastest time, 0.705s down on Bagnaia’s best effort.
Martin wasn’t the only rider to crash in the dying minutes of the hour-long session, with VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio suffering a scary fall at Turn 13 and KTM rider Brad Binder also having a tumble at Turn 1.
Both riders will be forced to go through Q1, along with the likes of Jack Miller (KTM) and Alex Marquez (Gresini).
Between Miller in 11th and the younger Marquez in 14th, LCR’s Johann Zarco put in a solid effort to take 12th spot on the fastest of the Honda bikes.
