Austin MotoGP: Andrea Iannone fastest, Marc Marquez crashes – MotoGP

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Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone set a shock fastest time in second free practice for MotoGP’s Grand Prix of the Americas at Austin on Friday afternoon.

Having spent much of the session playing second fiddle to Honda’s Marc Marquez, Iannone pulled out an amazing lap of 2m04.599s on the last lap of the session to beat Marquez – winner of all five MotoGP races at Austin so far – by 0.056 seconds.

Marquez had led the session from the start, working down to 2m05.287s on his opening run. On his second run, Marquez – using a hard rear tyre – whirled around in 2m04.963s, putting him 0.85s ahead with 20 minutes to go.

He then fell on the very next lap, losing the front end as he turned into the Turn 11 left-hander leading onto the back straight, but was able to climb back aboard and coast back to the pits.

Marquez re-emerged in the closing moments to lower his time fractionally to 2m04.951s, then worked down to 2m04.655s before Iannone pulled out his last-gasp stormer.

Maverick Vinales was third fastest, 0.264s off the pace, ahead of Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

Points leader Cal Crutchlow completed the top five on his LCR Honda, ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, and the Ducatis of Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.

Weather conditions remained cool at the start of the session, but the sun finally broke through the clouds and appeared to switch on the tyres in the closing moments of the session.

With rain forecast for Saturday, this session is likely to have been crucial for riders’ chances of making Q2.

The injured Dani Pedrosa was 10th fastest, but appeared to be in pain from his recently-broken wrist during the session.

KTM’s Pol Espargaro fell after losing the front at the tight Turn 15 left-hander without injury or much damage, while LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed in the closing moments at the Turn 5 downhill sweeper.

FP2 times

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 2m04.599s 16
2 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 2m04.655s 0.056s 17
3 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 2m04.863s 0.264s 16
4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 2m04.958s 0.359s 17
5 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 2m05.088s 0.489s 15
6 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 2m05.452s 0.853s 17
7 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 2m05.487s 0.888s 16
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 2m05.647s 1.048s 15
9 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 2m05.739s 1.140s 14
10 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 2m05.761s 1.162s 16
11 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 2m05.889s 1.290s 16
12 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 2m05.910s 1.311s 15
13 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 2m05.933s 1.334s 16
14 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 2m06.016s 1.417s 16
15 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 2m06.078s 1.479s 13
16 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 2m06.219s 1.620s 14
17 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 2m06.397s 1.798s 18
18 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 2m06.555s 1.956s 16
19 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 2m06.625s 2.026s 16
20 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 2m06.640s 2.041s 15
21 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 2m06.683s 2.084s 18
22 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 2m07.033s 2.434s 15
23 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 2m07.136s 2.537s 11
24 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 2m08.021s 3.422s 16



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