Danilo Petrucci took his Ducati to top spot in second MotoGP practice for the San Marino Grand Prix, while Honda’s Marc Marquez suffered a late fall.
In the early stages of the second 45-minutes session of the day, Marquez set the benchmark pace with an initial gambit of 1m33.884s, bettering that with a 1m33.654s.
The Spaniard – second in the standings and nine points adrift of championship leader Andrea Dovizioso – knocked a couple more tenths off his best pace to a 1m33.475s.
Pushing to improve further, Marquez crashed at the final corner with nine minutes to go. He was able to return to pitlane for his second bike, though dropped to fifth on the timesheets after a late flurry of fast laps.
Marquez’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa was the first to depose him, the 2016 Misano race winner going to with a 1m33.420s.
Pedrosa‘s time at the top of the pile only lasted a minute, however, as Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci guided his GP17 to a 1m33.231s with three minutes on the clock.
The Italian held onto top spot, though by just 0.005 seconds from Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, with the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso 0.063s further adrift in third.
Pedrosa remained ahead of Marquez as the Honda duo rounded out the top five, while Cal Crutchlow brushed off a high speed tumble at the penultimate corner halfway through the session to go sixth quickest.
Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro was second fastest this morning, and continued to set impressive pace on his GP17 in seventh ahead of team-mate for the weekend Jorge Lorenzo.
A late surge saw Andrea Iannone jump up to ninth, while Tito Rabat completed the top 10, which could see the Marc VDS rider into Q2 on Saturday should the forecast rain arrive for third practice.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro spent the session trying a new aerodynamic fairing akin to that Ducati has been running in recent races.
The Spaniard was 11th at the chequered flag, 0.012s outside of a place in the top 10. Johann Zarco slotted in behind in 12th, with Alvaro Bautista, Loris Baz and Hector Barbera completing the top 15.
Aprilia’s Sam Lowes and Suzuki’s Alex Rins tallied up their second crashes of the day, both coming off at Turn 1. Jack Miller also slid off his machine at the first corner, all three unscathed in 22nd, 23rd and 18th respectively.
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