MotoGP Valencia: Miller leads Pol Espargaro by 0.012s to top FP2

The rain that had affected this morning’s 45-minute session had completely cleared by the time FP2 got underway, with Honda’s Espargaro setting the early pace with a 1m34.510s.

Top spot changed hands constantly over the opening 15 minutes, with LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, Yamaha duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo and Ducati’s Bagnaia all taking turns alongside Espargaro at leading the session.

World champion Quartararo’s session was interrupted a little under 10 minutes in when he crashed at Turn 2.

It was a similar incident to that of Bagnaia’s in FP1 at the same place, while the Italian jumped to the top of the order moments after his chief title rival’s crash with a 1m32.379s.

The Ducati rider duly improved on his following tour to a 1m32.248s, which stood as the benchmark for the next 10 minutes.

Yamaha’s Morbidelli – winner of last year’s Valencia GP – guided his factory M1 to a 1m31.832s to head the timesheets into the closing moments when the field went for a soft tyre time attack.

A late salvo of laps once again led to a battle over top spot, with Miller the first to topple Morbidelli’s effort with a 1m31.409s with five minutes to go.

This was quickly beaten by team-mate Bagnaia with a 1m31.400s, before Espargaro guided his Honda to a 1m31.183s while following Miller.

A 1m31.134s put Bagnaia back on top briefly with just over a minute to go, with Miller ending his session with a 1m30.927s to end Friday fastest of all.

But he only just fended off Espargaro by 0.012s, with the Honda rider crashing at Turn 6 on his final flying lap.

Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia completed the top three a further 0.056s adrift, with Alex Rins leading the Suzuki charge in fourth from Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati.

Takaaki Nakagami made a late improvement to sixth on his LCR Honda to head 2020 world champion Joan Mir – who won the European GP at Ricardo Tormo last year – on the sister Suzuki and KTM’s Brad Binder.

Petronas SRT’s Andrea Dovizioso was the leading Yamaha rider after Friday’s running in ninth on the 2019 M1 which won last year’s Valencia GP, while Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10 on his Pramac Ducati.

Following his crash, Quartararo’s afternoon didn’t improve much as a mistake on his final lap exiting Turn 5 left him down in 11th at the end of FP2 from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Morbidelli.

Valentino Rossi held a spot inside the top 10 in the closing stages on his Petronas SRT Yamaha, but was demoted to last place at the chequered flag but just 1.3s off the pace.

Tech3’s Iker Lecuona (16th) and Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini (19th) also got caught out by the cooler track temperatures in FP2 and suffered crashes.

MotoGP Valencia - FP2 results

Cla	Rider		Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Jack Miller		Ducati	20	1'30.927
2	Pol Espargaro		Honda	19	1'30.939	0.012
3	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	20	1'30.995	0.068
4	Alex Rins		Suzuki	19	1'31.336	0.409
5	Jorge Martin		Ducati	17	1'31.396	0.469
6	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	20	1'31.427	0.500
7	Joan Mir		Suzuki	20	1'31.513	0.586
8	Brad Binder		KTM	20	1'31.521	0.594
9	Andrea Dovizioso		Yamaha	22	1'31.597	0.670
10	Johann Zarco		Ducati	21	1'31.603	0.676
11	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	17	1'31.708	0.781
12	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	21	1'31.820	0.893
13	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	20	1'31.832	0.905
14	Alex Marquez		Honda	20	1'31.852	0.925
15	Danilo Petrucci		KTM	21	1'32.083	1.156
16	Iker Lecuona		KTM	18	1'32.098	1.171
17	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	21	1'32.208	1.281
18	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	16	1'32.214	1.287
19	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	14	1'32.219	1.292
20	Luca Marini		Ducati	19	1'32.229	1.302
21	Valentino Rossi		Yamaha	19	1'32.285	1.358
View full results