Miller fastest at drying Le Mans

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller set the pace in second MotoGP Friday practice at a drying Le Mans Bugatti circuit.

Miller dominated much of the session and ended the day with a best time of 1m34.133s, putting him around three and a half tenths up on his nearest rival – Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.

After FP1 had taken place in drenched conditions, the track had dried enough for Vinales and Miller’s respective team-mates – Valentino Rossi and his protege Francesco Bagnaia – to venture out on slicks early on, though their initial pace was considerably slower than what the wet-tyre runners were managing.

Bradley Smith’s benchmark from the first session fell with the very first timed lap of FP2, a 1m43.515s from Joan Mir – but while the Suzuki rider then aborted his run almost immediately, Avintia Ducati’s Johann Zarco stayed out to lower the best time by nearly three seconds over his next few laps.

As the session approached the 15-minute mark and the track continued to improve, slicks finally became the quicker option, as Miller posted the first sub-1m40s effort of the weekend.

The Australian, famed for his ability in mixed conditions, arrived at 1m36.432s before ending his run with what at that point was a 3.3s lead.

With Miller now in the pits, it was nearly another 10 minutes until he was finally dethroned, by Takaaki Nakagami, but after a similar amount of time Miller returned to the track and reclaimed the top spot by eight tenths with five minutes left on the clock.

He improved with his penultimate lap to secure the top spot, with Vinales moving up to second place once the chequered flag had flown.

The MotoGP field had continued its crash-less streak from FP1 for much of this session despite the tricky conditions, but with around 10 minutes to go three riders hit the deck in quick succession.

These were Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) at the Turn 3 left-hander, and Espargaro’s team-mate Smith at Turn 11, the FP1 pacesetter suffering a highside and being hit by his bike as they slid down the track in tandem. Smith limped off from the site of the crash.

KTM’s Brad Binder and Nakagami also fell later on, although Nakagami’s crash came after the chequered flag as he was challenging Miller for the top spot – and his previous best time was still enough for third place.

Zarco, who at one point had to peel off-track and fiddle with the dashboard on his 2019-spec Ducati, took fourth, with Rossi and Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci the last two riders within a second of Miller.

But Zarco and Rossi had their post-chequered flag fastest times chalked off after the session, relegating the former to 10th and the latter to 12th.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Honda rookie Alex Marquez were next up, with Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and KTM’s Pol Espargaro completing the top eight ahead of Mir and Zarco.

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo is among those currently facing Q1 on combined practice times, having finished the session in 11th.

But with the rest of the weekend forecast to be dry it’s FP3 that’s expected to fully determine who gets the 10 automatic Q2 spots.

Practice 2 Results