Jerez MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo stays on top in practice two
Jorge Lorenzo underlined his Spanish Grand Prix intentions by again setting the pace in the second MotoGP practice
Lorenzo headed Cal Crutchlow as the Yamahas enjoyed a much more competitive time at Jerez than at Austin two weeks ago.
The session's start was delayed due to ongoing power cut problems at Jerez but once it did get underway Lorenzo emerged on top after an early flurry of times.
The morning pacesetter lay down an impressive early benchmark with a 1m39.691s lap to improve immediately on his FP1 time, while Crutchlow dipped into the 1m39s for the first time and then improved to head the chasing pack.
Lorenzo then went even faster, setting a 1m39.562s, but even his first effort would have been good enough for first place.
The early urgency was shortlived and the next 20 minutes featured little improvement, though Danilo Petrucci suffered yet another mechanical failure as his Ioda-Suter's BMW engine let go in spectacular fashion.
Crutchlow was unable to improve on his early 1m39.733s but had looked set to dethrone Lorenzo in the final minutes of the session after going faster for most of the lap, before losing time in the final sector.
Dani Pedrosa headed Honda's charge with the third fastest time, but he was slower than he managed in the morning session - albeit only by a few thousandths of a second.
Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez were two improvers in the final quarter of the session, both going under 1m40s for the first time to end up fourth and fifth quickest, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, one of the few to set rapid times in the middle of the afternoon.
Marquez had a steady start to the weekend but set fastest sector times as the session drew to a close - only to replicate Crutchlow's loss of time in the final sector.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m39.562s 2. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.733s + 0.171s 3. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m39.757s + 0.195s 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m39.874s + 0.312s 5. Marc Marquez Honda 1m39.889s + 0.327s 6. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m40.507s + 0.945s 7. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 1m40.574s + 1.012s 8. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m40.736s + 1.174s 9. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m40.738s + 1.176s 10. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m40.837s + 1.275s 11. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m40.884s + 1.322s 12. Michele Pirro Ducati 1m40.902s + 1.340s 13. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m40.990s + 1.428s 14. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m41.053s + 1.491s 15. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m41.078s + 1.516s 16. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m41.751s + 2.189s 17. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m41.774s + 2.212s 18. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m41.790s + 2.228s 19. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m42.058s + 2.496s 20. Yonny Hernandez Paul Bird Aprilia 1m42.603s + 3.041s 21. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 1m42.606s + 3.044s 22. Michael Laverty Paul Bird PBM-Aprilia 1m42.974s + 3.412s 23. Karel Abraham Cardion Aprilia 1m43.356s + 3.794s 24. Lukas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m43.403s + 3.841s
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