Dovizioso beats Miller in frantic FP2, Lorenzo struggles

Andrea Dovizioso on top of the late time attack to go quickest during Friday practice in Argentina by just 0.009s from Jack Miller
Dovizioso beats Miller in frantic FP2, Lorenzo struggles

Full FP2 results at Argentina MotoGP

Andrea Dovizioso has come out on top of the late time attack to go quickest during Friday practice in Argentina by just 0.009s from Jack Miller, while Jorge Lorenzo continues to struggle with injury taking him off the pace.

Dovizioso, who has been cleared to use the Ducati tyre cooling device following the FIM MotoGP Court of Appeal hearing, joined the rest of his rivals in the mini-qualifying session which development in the final 10 minutes of FP2 aiming to secure a provisional top 10 spot and notched up a 1m 39.181s to top the day by ninth-thousandths of a second ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Miller.

Miller, who took pole in Argentina 12 months ago, faced almost identical weather conditions to his dramatic pole position with dark clouds forming over the Autodromo de Rio Hondo track in the closing stages of FP2 but only had his spare bike after crashing at Turn 13 overtaking Valentino Rossi earlier in the session.

Maverick Vinales, pole-sitter in Qatar at the 2019 season opener, continued to demonstrate his impressive single-lap pace for Monster Yamaha by surging to third place with his final effort to push last year’s winner in Argentina Cal Crutchlow to fourth spot for LCR Honda.

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Fabio Quarataro has caught the eye again as the top MotoGP rookie on the Petronas Yamaha for fifth place, ahead of Rossi on the factory Yamaha, while Suzuki’s Alex Rins secured a top 10 spot in seventh place.

FP1’s pace-setter Marc Marquez also challenged at the sharp end throughout the afternoon session but failed to notch up a late flyer which saw him shuffled down to eighth place for Repsol Honda.

Franco Morbidelli ensured all four Yamahas were in the top 10 as Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the provisional automatic Q2 riders for LCR Honda.

Andrea Iannone missed out by just 0.025s as a result for Aprilia, but ended FP2 ahead of new team-mate Aleix Espargaro, with Danilo Petrucci missing the top 10 cut for Ducati in 13th place.

Repsol Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo was another noticeable absentee as he continued to suffer with injury having sustained a broken rib during the MotoGP opener in Qatar three weeks ago.