Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales ends the first day of hostilities in Argentina fastest of all, the Spaniard going three tenths clear of the field.
Vinales has been on imperious form all day, and wasted no time this afternoon striking fear into his competitors’ hearts by putting in a race simulation on the hard tyre. Setting a fairly ominous pace, Vinales twisted the screw in the closing stages to set a 1m39.477s to go fastest.
His nearest challenger was Honda’s Marc Marquez, though the reigning world champion was 0.301s back on a 1m39.778s. Amazingly, rounding out the top three was Aspar Ducati’s Karel Abraham, who hasn’t ridden at Termas de Rio Hondo for two years.
The Czech rider spent his session working with a well-worn medium tyre, and was comfortably inside the top 10. In the final minutes, his two-year-old Desmosedici fitted with fresh rubber, Abraham pipped team-mate Alvaro Bautista to fourth to end the day as top Ducati rider.
Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci was fifth on his GP17, with Avintia’s Loris Baz a tenth behind on his 2015 Ducati. Meanwhile, the factory pairing of Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were 14th and 18th at the chequered flag.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was just over six tenths off the pace in seventh, with Tech 3 Yamaha’s Jonas Folger not far off in eighth. Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone completed the top 10.
With the weather forecast predicting rain for tomorrow, FP2 may well have decided who has progressed straight through to QP2 and who must contest the first part of qualifying
If so, alongside the factory Ducatis, Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, who is set to start his 350th grand prix this weekend, could well be joining them in what is surely one of the most volatile QP1 groups since the introduction of this qualifying format.
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