Vinales sets late fast lap to top second day of MotoGP Sepang test – MotoGP

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Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales beat Alex Rins late on to top the second day of MotoGP’s 2019 pre-season testing at Sepang.

Vinales overhauled Rins, who had dethroned long-time leader Andrea Dovizioso just a few minutes earlier, moments before the chequered flag fell.

But while Vinales had left it late to snatch the top spot, having trailed Rins through the first two sectors, his margin over the Suzuki man in the end was 0.527s.

Dovizioso had initially taken the top spot in the third hour by eclipsing Marc Marquez’s Wednesday benchmark with a 1m59.562s lap time that had looked set to secure him the day’s honours.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, making his comeback on a MotoGP bike after a major ankle injury cut his 2018 campaign short, had come within 0.004s of Dovizioso’s lap a few minutes later. Crutchlow also had a crash at Turn 5 during his running.

It took another five hours before Dovizioso was finally deposed.

Rins, who sat ninth heading into the final minutes, first improved to sixth place and then recorded a 1m59.424s to snatch the top spot.

Vinales went quicker still, recording the first sub-1m59s lap of the test.

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller was another to improve in the final seconds of the session, snatching third place from Dovizioso, as Crutchlow settled for fifth.

Valentino Rossi sat just a few hundredths behind Vinales for most of the test but wound up sixth, seven tenths down, after his Yamaha team-mate’s late charge.

Tito Rabat overhauled Marquez late on for what would ultimately end up being seventh place, with the still-injured Marquez once again ending his programme for the day several hours early.

Dovizioso’s works Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci was the last rider within a second of Vinales in ninth place, while LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami beat KTM’s Johann Zarco to 10th.

Pramac rookie Francesco Bagnaia crashed during the day, but went on to finish as the best of the Moto2 graduates in 12th.

Aleix Espargaro led Aprilia’s efforts in 13th while rookie Fabio Quartararo, recently upgraded to a current-spec Yamaha, edged team-mate Franco Morbidelli in 14th.

Stefan Bradl, substituting for Jorge Lorenzo at Honda, took 16th.

He headed KTM’s Pol Espargaro – who was thrown off his RC16 at Turn 1 for his second crash in two days – and Aprilia’s Andrea Iannone.

Rins’ Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir had another quiet day as the Moto2 graduate finished 21st and almost two seconds off the pace.

Thursday test times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m58.897s 63
2 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m59.424s 0.527s 61
3 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m59.517s 0.620s 49
4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m59.562s 0.665s 60
5 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m59.566s 0.669s 53
6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m59.625s 0.728s 51
7 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m59.664s 0.767s 75
8 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m59.790s 0.893s 37
9 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Ducati 1m59.845s 0.948s 65
10 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m59.966s 1.069s 60
11 Johann Zarco KTM KTM 1m59.973s 1.076s 58
12 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m59.995s 1.098s 52
13 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 2m00.101s 1.204s 54
14 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 2m00.108s 1.211s 58
15 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 2m00.151s 1.254s 58
16 Stefan Bradl Honda Honda 2m00.230s 1.333s 59
17 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 2m00.305s 1.408s 67
18 Andrea Iannone Aprilia Aprilia 2m00.510s 1.613s 39
19 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 2m00.523s 1.626s 41
20 Miguel Oliveira Tech3 KTM KTM 2m00.672s 1.775s 61
21 Joan Mir Suzuki Suzuki 2m00.876s 1.979s 64
22 Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati Ducati 2m01.245s 2.348s 56
23 ? Yamaha Yamaha 2m01.406s 2.509s 42
24 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki Suzuki 2m01.654s 2.757s 45
25 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM KTM 2m01.859s 2.962s 53
26 ? Yamaha Yamaha 2m02.989s 4.092s 16
27 Takuya Tsuda Suzuki Suzuki 2m03.276s 4.379s 22
Jonas Folger Yamaha Yamaha 0
Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha Yamaha 0
Kohta Nozane Yamaha Yamaha 0



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