Pramac Racing’s Scott Redding began Friday’s running in Qatar with the fastest time in a frantic second free practice session.
The British rider has been struggling all winter with a lack of front-end confidence on his Desmosedici GP16, though this seemingly isn’t an issue anymore.
Fitting a set of fresh soft Michelins to his Ducati in the closing stages, the Briton used the traffic ahead of him to brilliant effect to go top with a 1m55.085s, which was a second quicker than what he managed on Thursday.
Exactly a tenth adrift in second was factory rider Andrea Dovizioso, who edged Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Jonas Folger by 0.023s right at the chequered flag. The German’s team-mate Johann Zarco was a further tenth back in fourth.
Maverick Vinales still leads the way on the combined time sheets, with his 1m54.3 from yesterday remaining unmatched. However, it wasn’t an easy session for the Yamaha rider.
Twitter: There’s no denying it, the kid’s got moves
#QatarGP https://t.co/3e2KIr1BPS (@MotoGP)
The Spaniard was running ahead team-mate Valentino Rossi almost 15 minutes into the session when he strayed off line and tucked the front of his YZR-M1. He was unharmed in the incident, thankfully, and rejoined to go fifth in the session.
Rossi will be slightly encouraged by his pace in the second session. He was just 0.036s adrift of Vinales in the standings, though is still eighth on the combined times as he searches for front-end confidence on his Yamaha.
Alvaro Bautista edged Jorge Lorenzo to seventh in FP2, with Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro completing the top 10. Despite the inauspicious start to the day’s proceedings for Marquez, he remains second on the combined times.
Danilo Petrucci will be left scratching his head down in 11th and almost seven tenth off the pace of his team-mate at the end of his soft tyre run, while Cal Crutchlow has some work to do to lift himself into the top 10 in FP3 after finishing the first session 12th.
The all-important FP3, which decides who progresses straight through to the second part of Saturday’s qualifying, will get underway at 20:55 (GMT3).
Comments.
Loading comments…