Jorge
Lorenzo with a clear advantage over the rest of the field in Le Mans,
Iannone and Marquez the only riders within half a second.
In the morning session it
was Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) who led the way with a 1’34.042,
the Spaniard showing well after a fruitful test in Jerez. His time
wouldn’t stand for long as riders were immediately pushing in the second
session.
Free Practice 2 for the MotoGP™ World Championship began with Jorge
Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) setting a string of fast laps. Clouds
began to gather overhead as the session got underway, the rain
fortunately holding off and allowing all the riders to improve their
times. Results from Free Practice 2 could be vital for passage into Q2
as the morning sessions in Le Mans are often quite cool.
After his blazing start to the session, it came as little surprise
that Jorge Lorenzo concluded Free Practice 2, and the day as a whole, as
the fastest rider. Lorenzo’s fastest time, a 1’32.830, came towards the
end of the session. The only rider in the 1’32s, Lorenzo left the Le
Mans circuit on Friday evening with a 0.339s advantage over Andrea
Iannone (Ducati Team).
The Le Mans circuit has often seen Ducati riders perform well, Andrea
Iannone continuing the tradition as he wrapped up Friday in second
place on the combined timesheets. Iannone’s best time came on his final
lap of the day, the problems of Jerez long gone for the Desmosedici GP.
Once again it was Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) who completed the
top three, the final rider able to get within half a second of Lorenzo’s
time. Marquez's performance made it three different brands inside the
top three, proving that a variety of styles are competitive at the
French GP.
Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) achieved his first, and so far
only, MotoGP™ front row start in Le Mans during his rookie campaign.
After a troublesome year in 2015, the Spaniard is again performing well
and concludes Friday at his team’s home race in fourth and as the
leading Independent Team rider, ahead of Rossi on the factory bike.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) completed the top five, making Ducati
the only factory team with both their bikes inside the top five. The
Italian was 0.744s back on Lorenzo’s time as he looks to maintain a run
of five straight front row starts in France and shake his bad luck from
the start of the year.
Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki
Ecstar), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Hector Barbera (Avintia
Racing) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) rounded out the top
ten.
While Lorenzo improved his time from FP1 by 1.2 seconds, Rossi was
only able to improve by half a second and ended 1.1 seconds behind his
teammate.
Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) concluded Friday in 11th on
his MotoGP™ return after injuring his hand in both the Phillip Island
test and the Qatar GP.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was the victim of a crash at Turn 13,
jumping to his feet and jogging back into the pits for his second
RC213V. It was a difficult day overall for Loris Baz (Avintia Racing) as
he suffered a second crash, coming off at Turn 6 with less than five
minutes of FP2 remaining.
On his final lap of the day, Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich)
crashed at Turn 7, removing any chance he had of getting into the top
ten.
The MotoGP™ World Championship is back on track at 09:55 Local Time
on Saturday the seventh of may for the critical FP3 session, the last
chance for riders to get into the top ten.
Full times from the second session can be seen here.
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