Miller sets Valencia FP2 pace as Ducatis shine, Mir crashes

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller led second Friday practice ahead of the Valencian Grand Prix, as MotoGP championship favourite Joan Mir suffered a rare crash.

Mir tucked the front late in the session at the Turn 4 right-hander, but was unperturbed and rejoined the track on his spare GSX-RR minutes later.

He placed only 11th in the end, however, and is currently on course to be forced to contest Q1 due to his position in the combined practice classification.

Avintia Ducati rider Johann Zarco led FP2 in the early stages, but it took until 19 minutes to go that a rider dipped below the 1m31s mark, that rider being Takaaki Nakagami.

The LCR man equipped a fresh soft rear and fired in a 1m30.713s, narrowly improving upon his own FP1 benchmark and establishing a lead of three tenths that held up until the final minutes of the session.

Just moments before the chequered flag flew, Miller pulled out a 1m30.622s – and though both Nakagami and his Pramac team-mate Francesco Bagnaia looked on course to surpass that, neither ultimately managed.

A crash for the championship leader! 😲@JoanMirOfficial is unhurt after this crash at Turn 4 but that won't help the nerves! 👀#MatchPoint | #ValenciaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/ZcBzEyN1C1

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 13, 2020

Nakagami ended up a tenth off, with Bagnaia completing the top three in what was his best Friday showing in a long while.

KTM rider Pol Espargaro completed a top four split by just two tenths, with Zarco shuffled down to fifth and Andrea Dovizioso making it four Ducatis in the top six.

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, newly confirmed as Yamaha’s test rider for 2021, moved up to seventh at the chequered flag, ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

But the Aprilia man is currently facing Q1 despite having placed ninth in FP2, as both Yamaha works rider Maverick Vinales and Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli had set faster times in FP1.

Morbidelli’s team-mate Fabio Quartararo was only 16th but two places up the returning Valentino Rossi, whose time was equal to that of factory Honda rider Alex Marquez.

Marquez, seven places down on his brother Marc’s stand-in Stefan Bradl, had two crashes in the first half-hour of the session – one at the Turn 2 left-hander and one at the Turn 4 right-hander.

Practice 2 Results