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Le Mans MotoGP: Marquez leads from Iannone in FP2

Marc Marquez remained on top in second MotoGP practice at Le Mans, but only by 0.007 seconds over surprise challenger Andrea Iannone

An initial time-topping effort from Marquez was disallowed because he had exceeded track limits at the final Raccordement corner after running wide on the way.

That came amid a flurry of early changes at the top in which both factory man Andrea Dovizioso and Pramac's Iannone put their Ducatis in front prior to Jorge Lorenzo establishing Yamaha in first with a 1m34.054s.

The loss of Marquez's lap demoted him to ninth for a while, but he restored his superiority with first a 1m33.868s to beat Lorenzo's time, then a 1m33.452s next time around to obliterate the opposition.

Iannone threatened to depose him in the last few minutes, albeit using the extra-soft tyre available to Open class runners while Marquez had set his time on mediums.

The Italian was up on Marquez after three splits, before falling just short of a giant-killing Friday top spot.

Alvaro Bautista jumped up to third with a strong late lap on the Gresini Honda, 0.216s down on Marquez.

It ended up being a muted session for Yamaha on the final timesheets, with Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi back in seventh and 10th. Rossi required a last-gasp improvement to bring himself back into the group guaranteed a Q2 place at present.

Tech 3's Bradley Smith emerged as top Yamaha on his team's home ground in fourth, ahead of the Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Stefan Bradl.

Scott Redding had the session's only fall, losing his Gresini Honda in a low-side at the end of the back straight. He was unhurt.

Pos Rider             Bike                   Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Marc Marquez      Honda                  1m33.452s            20
 2. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati          1m33.459s  +0.007s   22
 3. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda          1m33.668s  +0.216s   21
 4. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha          1m33.920s  +0.468s   20
 5. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                  1m33.942s  +0.490s   22
 6. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda              1m34.040s  +0.588s   21
 7. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                 1m34.054s  +0.602s   21
 8. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                 1m34.117s  +0.665s   19
 9. Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha         1m34.134s  +0.682s   16
10. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                 1m34.498s  +1.046s   21
11. Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha          1m34.506s  +1.054s   23
12. Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati          1m34.877s  +1.425s   18
13. Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                 1m34.907s  +1.455s   19
14. Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda            1m34.961s  +1.509s   19
15. Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha         1m35.089s  +1.637s   17
16. Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda            1m35.229s  +1.777s   19
17. Scott Redding     Gresini Honda          1m35.424s  +1.972s   18
18. Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda          1m35.818s  +2.366s   19
19. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki   1m36.418s  +2.966s   20
20. Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki   1m36.612s  +3.160s   18
21. Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia            1m36.742s  +3.290s   19
22. Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia            1m37.136s  +3.684s   11

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