Jerez, MotoGP, FP2: The Ducatis take control! Virtual Quartararo 3rd!

A bit like that of Lorenzo Baldassarri in Moto2, the fall of Marc Márquez in Texas completely relaunched a championship whose protagonists presented themselves this morning on the partially resurfaced track of the Circuito Ángel Nieto in Jerez de la Frontera.

obviously, once discovered the technical cause of the Honda misstep in Austin, we expected a strong reaction from the RC213Vs in Andalusia, especially since the reigning world champion had already won the event there last year after dominating most of the sessions with the help of Cal Crutchlow. And it did take place, with no less than 3 machines from Tokyo in the first 4, the beautiful 2nd place of Jorge Lorenzo and a provisional pole already very close to the absolute track record for Marc Márquez bonus !

Of course, the opposition has not remained inactive, starting with the testing specialist Maverick Vinales, But also Andrea Dovizioso current leader of the championship, who however has never shone on this track, and, pleasant surprise, the always astonishing fabio quartararo who took 2nd from the Yamaha, in 6th position, less than 3 tenths from the leader.

Conversely, Valentino Rossi who is counting a lot on this first European event to judge the level of performance of his Yamaha M1, started his weekend slowly, modest 18th, 1,5 seconds behind the leader.

Another surprise after their victory in Austin, the Suzukis do not appear in the Top 10, just like the KTMs led this time by a Johann zarco who gave everything until he fell after trying a new chassis.

We will also note the presence of test pilots Stefan bradl (carbon-coated chassis) and Bradley Smith for Aprilia (stiffer swingarm).

Conditions are still good this afternoon, with pristine skies and warm temperatures of 24° in the air and 45° on the ground.

Here are the available references, established on the old coating, before this 2-minute FP45:

Jerez MotoGP™	2018 (old bitumen)	2019
FP1	1'39.268 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)	1'37.921 Marc Márquez (See here)
FP2	1'38.614 Cal Crutchlow (See here)	1'37.909 Danilo Petrucci
FP3	1'37.702 Marc Márquez (See here)
FP4	1'38.444 Andrea Iannone (See here)
Q1	1'38.074 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)
Q2	1'37.653 Cal Crutchlow (See here)
warm up	1'38.687 Marc Márquez (See here)
Course	Marquez, Zarco, Iannone (See here)
All time lap record	1'37.653 Cal Crutchlow (2018)

When the red lights go out, the 2 official Hondas take the track in the lead while Franco Morbidelli stalls in the pitlane.

High temperatures require, hard tires are almost unanimously approved, mainly at the rear, while Marc Marquez stands out once again by being the only one to use a soft rear tire.

A strategy which seems to work well since the Honda rider is the fastest at the end of the first flying lap, in 1'39.094, a time which he improves to 1'38.408 on the following lap despite a small slip from his bike.

After a few minutes into the session, Hafizh Syahrin suffered a big fall in turn number 10, followed a few moments later by a small escape from Johann zarco at turn 2 with its new chassis.

The Malaysian driver is evacuated on a stretcher to the circuit medical center while Johann zarco returns to his box.

Meanwhile, Marc Márquez went down to 1'38.154 in front Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Dovizioso, Takaaki Nakagami and Francis Bagnaia more lively than during the last sessions.

These 5 pilots are then followed by Alex Rins, Jack Miller, Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo et Fabio Quartararo at the end of the first run, while the 2 official Yamahas of Maverick Vinales (12e) and Valentino Rossi (15th) perhaps see the specter of a hot track causing them to lose grip re-profiled…

On resumption, fabio quartararo, who put a hard tire on the front, nevertheless moved up to 10th position despite losing time in sector 3.

The French pilot was then overtaken by Valentino Rossi (Medium/Medium) who moved up to 7th place in the session, but in a time which still does not allow him to be pre-qualified for Q2.

At the end of the 2nd run, Marc Márquez still 5/100 ahead of Danilo Petrucci, then come Andrea Dovizioso, Takaaki Nakagami, Francesco Bagnaia, Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi, Alex Rins, Jack Miller and Fabio Quartararo.

Jorge Lorenzo is then 11th, Alex Espargaró 12th, Pol Espargaro 14th, Maverick Vinales 15th and John Zarco 21e.

For final packaging, Marc Márquez leaves with hard/hard tires while Maverick Vinales, although apparently not happy, rises to 5th position.

3 minutes from the checkered flag, Stefan bradl achieves the 3rd time without any help.

Most of the drivers logically fitted a soft tire for a single timed lap, but this is once again Marc Márquez which improves the best provisional reference of the weekend in 1'38.147, a position which he must however concede to Cal Crutchlow, last year's pole sitter, then Danilo Petrucci which achieves 1'37.909.

The times are racing but the session is interrupted at the red flag due to a big fall of Bradley Smith who remains lying for a moment in the gravel. The English pilot fell when Karel Abraham lost control of his Ducati in front of him but, fortunately, he eventually got back up.

fabio quartararo had then achieved the 2nd time of the session (the 3rd overall) in 1'37.990, but this was not validated because of the red flag...

The session finally restarts for 2 minutes, that is to say for a single timed lap.
Jorge Lorenzo is the first improve, followed by fabio quartararo which is positioned 6th.
The session ends with a minor fall Joan Mir who had to throw himself off his motorcycle after the finish line.

Marc Márquez having obviously kept soft tires for tomorrow, pole should be contested…

FP2 Ranking MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez: 

FP1/FP2 classification MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez: 

Credit rankings and photo: MotoGP.com