---
title: "Marquez rises to Vinales challenge in FP2"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/04/21/marquez-rises-vinales-challenge-fp2/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "MotoGP News"
published: "2017-04-21T20:09:20Z"
modified: "2017-04-21T20:10:00Z"
---

# Marquez rises to Vinales challenge in FP2

Honda’s Marc Marquez fired his first warning shot to Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales by topping the timesheets in FP2 by almost three tenths of a second.

Marquez has been the king of the Circuit of the Americas since the world championship began coming to the venue in 2013, and victory has always looked a formality even before a wheel has been turned.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/666264374.jpg)

However, Vinales sent a letter of intent in the morning session by going half a second clear of the Honda rider, who spent the session struggling to handle the RC213V over CoTA’s worsening bumps.

Marquez fought back early in second practice, hitting the top of the timing screens with a 2m04.622s, though this was beaten by two tenths by Vinales 10 minutes later. The Honda rider dug deep at the end of the session to produce a 2m04.061s to end the day top on the combined times.

Johann Zarco enjoyed a decent start to proceedings in FP1, and carried that form over to the afternoon to head into tomorrow’s running second overall ahead of both factory Yamaha riders.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/665904880.jpg)

Vinaled completed the top three, almost four tenths adrift of Marquez’s best effort, though did not fit a softer tyre for a time attack towards the end of the session. Team-mate Valentino Rossi struggled in the morning on corner entry, a common woe so far this season.

However, the Italian looks to be in a better shape heading forward than he has done at any stage so far in 2017 after he popped in the fourth quickest time of the day, albeit seven tenths off the pace. Dani Pedrosa, who spent the session comparing exhausts, rounded out the top five.

Andrea Dovizioso was top Ducati ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Cructhlow and the second Tech 3 bike of Jonas Folger. Scott Redding and Andrea Iannone filled out the remaining spots inside the top 10, with Jorge Lorenzo just 0.140s outside in 11th.

The session began in dramatic fashion for Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who suffered an engine blow-up on his out lap. He quickly returned to his garage for his spare GSX-RR and finished the afternoon 18th ahead of Loris Baz, who was one of two crashers in FP2.

> Twitter: Horrific looking crash for Karel Abraham heading onto the back straight! He’s up & walked off to the side of the tr… https://t.co/S968lgFsYk (@MotoGP)

Aspar’s Karel Abraham was the other, and the Czech rider’s was quite a bit more violent than Baz’s. Abraham was flicked from his GP15 exiting Turn 11 and got tangled up with his motorcycle, but was able to limp away.

![](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/2017-04-21-1-1.png)