All you need to know about second MotoGP Portimao practice

Pol Espargaro completed a Honda clean sweep of Friday MotoGP practice at Portimao in what was a second wet session.

Key moments:

• Three Ducati crashes
• Honda bags 1-2
• Rain could mean all-star Q1 line-up

The track conditions gradually got worse thanks to rainfall over the course of the 45-minute session, meaning riders only really had a window to improve on their FP1 times in the opening minutes.

Espargaro made the best use of that window, his 1m50.707s cementing him as the FP2 pacesetter and placing him a close second behind Honda factory team-mate Marc Marquez in the day’s combined classification.

Marquez also made it a Honda 1-2 in the session itself, six tenths down on Espargaro and four tenths up on the third-fastest rider – Andrea Dovizioso from RNF Yamaha.

Fourth-fastest Francesco Bagnaia was one of the three riders to crash during the session, folding the front of his Ducati Desmosedici GP22 at Turn 3 and tumbling through the gravel.

Absolutely no saving that! 😮@PeccoBagnaia loses the front into Turn 3! 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/FuyY6zfEpb

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 22, 2022

Upon getting up, he took a handful of rocks from the gravel trap with himself, which Ducati manager Davide Tardozzi said was aimed at raising the issue of the gravel at Portimao causing too much pain for riders.

But Bagnaia’s fall was not the most painful in the session – this dubious distinction belonged to fellow Valentino Rossi protege Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati).

Fast highside for @Marco12_B through Turn 9! 👀

Luckily Bez was up and OK afterwards! 👍#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/z4pJN9mzPj

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 22, 2022

The Italian rookie was thrown off his 2021-spec Desmosedici in a rear highside through the high-speed Turn 9 and needed a bit of time to get back up on his feet – but was in the end seemingly largely unhurt, and returned to the track later in the session.

The third crash of FP2 was also a Ducati one, with Pramac’s Johann Zarco falling at Turn 2 in the closing minutes.

The latest in a long list of riders to be caught out today! 👀@JohannZarco1 slips off through Turn 2 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/wfaFpiLxSv

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 22, 2022

After a full day of wet-weather running on Friday, qualifying day at Portimao is expected to be hit with intermittent rain – meaning that the Friday classification could yet effectively decide who goes directly to Q2.

Therefore, a sufficiently wet FP3 would lave the likes of Brad Binder (KTM), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and championship leader Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) among those having to fight it out for the two transfer spots in the first qualifying segment.

Practice 2 Results