Espargaro leads Aprilia 1-2 in second Barcelona MotoGP practice

Aleix Espargaro was three tenths clear of anyone as Aprilia took a 1-2 in second MotoGP practice for the Catalan Grand Prix.

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Key moments

– Espargaro fastest by 0.3s from Vinales
– Both factory Yamahas in top 10
– Honda stand-in Bradl crashes

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Espargaro first went fastest 20 minutes into the 45-minute session with a 1m40.207s lap of the Barcelona circuit, using medium front and rear tyres.

That represented the fastest lap of the weekend at the time, and beat Marco Bezzechi’s previous FP2 benchmark by more than half a second.

It was only inside the final 10 minutes that Espargaro’s time was beaten, as Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales set two consecutive fastest laps – the second of which was a 1m39.705s, as the majority of riders opted for soft rear tyres.

Espargaro was briefly bumped out of the top four by improvements from Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, but went fastest by 0.303s at the chequered flag with a best time of 1m39.402s.

That therefore meant Bastianini was third for Gresini, 0.185s behind Vinales, and at the head of a Ducati 3-4-5 with Bagnaia and Jorge Martin next up.

KTM rider Brad Binder improved to sixth after the chequered flag ahead of Jack Miller, the Ducati rider using soft tyres on both the front and the rear to set his lap.

Points leader Fabio Quartararo – whose contract extension at Yamaha was announced on Thursday – and factory team-mate Franco Morbidelli were eighth and 10th, sandwiching the lead Suzuki of Alex Rins.

Pol Espargaro was the fastest Honda rider in the session but could only set the 11th-fastest time, while stand-in team-mate Stefan Bradl produced the only incident of note when he fell midway through the session.

Bradl had been following the pacesetting Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro when he dropped his Honda. He was nevertheless OK to complete the session and ended up 23rd, ahead of Tech3 KTM pair Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner.

Practice 2 Results