Motegi Moto2 FP2 Japanese Grand Prix: Márquez regains the advantage over Binder

The time has come for the Moto2 to take their turn on the track to carry out their FP2. This morning, Brad Binder was the fastest, stealing the show from local Tetsuta Nagashima, but Championship leader Alex Márquez was not far behind. This was not the case for Augusto Fernández, who finished 15th.

Given the uncertainty of the weather for tomorrow, this second free practice session could be decisive for automatically moving into Q2, and the last minutes therefore promise to be important. For now, here is the summary table of times.

Motegi Moto2™	2018	2019
FP1	1'56.507 Marcel Schrötter	1'51.055 Brad Binder
FP2	1'52.159 Iker Lecuona	1'50.647 Alex Marquez
FP3	1'51.293 Fabio Quartararo
Q1	XXX
Q2	1'50.759 Francesco Bagnaia
warm up	1'51.477 Augusto Fernández
Course	Bagnaia, Baldassarri, Oliveira
All time lap record	1'49.961 Johann Zarco (2016)

As in FP1, Luca Marini wastes no time and exits the pit lane first, followed very closely by Márquez. The reference time is established by Tom Luthi, which runs in 1'51.612.

After ten minutes, the Swiss still leads ahead of the rookie Enea Bastianini, Iker Lecuona, Marquez et Binder. The latter moved up to second place a few minutes later, before taking the best time in 1'50.922 and improving it by a few tenths in the process, thus confirming his great form in FP1.

Marco Bezzecchi comes to place his machine in third place before slipping to sixth position. Great performance from the Tech3 driver who had crashed and finished at the bottom of the rankings during the first session.

Halfway through the session, the South African still leads, but behind him, Marini went back up. He is ahead Lüthi, Marquez et Jorge Martin. Come next Bezzecchi, Sam Lowes et Enea Bastianini. lecuona et Nagashima complete the top 10, ahead Remy gardner, who makes a mistake.

You have to wait until the last eight minutes to see the times really evolve. Stefano manzi confirms on the handlebars of his MV Agusta by taking fourth time, while Nicolò Bulega et Fabio DiGiannantonio rose to fifth and eighth places.

Márquez goes first in 1'50.864, while Lorenzo Baldassarri et Marcel Schrötter enter the top 10 in turn. The efforts of Manzi will remain there since he fell at turn 9, five minutes from the end. Gardner falls again, in turn 5 this time.

The Championship leader has the last word, in front of his teammates Binder et Martín. Marini et Lowes close the top 5. Fernandez, still as discreet as in FP1, finished 11th.

FP2 Moto2 ranking:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com