Petrucci skates clear of Marquez in soaking wet FP2
Danilo Petrucci tops a soaking wet second free practice at Valencia by almost half a second from Marc Marquez
Full MotoGP FP2 results from Valencia
Danilo Petrucci has topped a soaking wet second free practice at Valencia by almost half a second from Marc Marquez ahead of the 2018 MotoGP final round.
The heavy rain which hit FP1 returned just ahead of the second practice session as Moto3’s FP2 wrapped up meaning any hopes of better conditions compared to the morning were quickly dashed.
Alex Rins was the early pace-setter on the Suzuki, while Johann Zarco became the first rider to crash at Turn 12, which triggered the red flag stoppage as the rain worsened. After a 10-minute suspension the rain eased to see the session resume with Marquez and Petrucci trading top lap times.
But Petrucci’s best effort of 1m 41.318s remained almost two seconds slower than the FP1 top times as the rain intensified again for the closing minutes of the session meaning very few riders could improve.
Valentino Rossi became one of the few late improvers to take third for Movistar Yamaha ahead of Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone who edged his future team and team-mate Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia.
Pol Espargaro continued to impress in the wet for Red Bull KTM, which meant all six different MotoGP manufacturers were represented in the top six, with Maverick Vinales claiming seventh on the factory Yamaha.
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Scott Redding enjoyed a positive start to his final MotoGP bow before he switches to British Superbikes next season by ending FP2 in eighth place for Aprilia.
Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM) and Rins rounded out the top ten ahead of Xavier Simoen (Avintia Ducati) who became another faller at Turn 12 moments before LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl suffered the same fate.
Andrea Dovizioso could only manage 12th in FP2 on the factory Ducati, almost two seconds slower than Petrucci, but ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller, Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) on his comeback from injury.
Due to the poor conditions a number of riders completed minimal laps in FP2 including newly-named MotoGP Legend Dani Pedrosa who ended the session down in 24th place for Repsol Honda.
