Espargaro tops Barcelona MotoGP practice

Friday afternoon's MotoGP FP2 at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya ended with Bradley Smith setting the pace, as Stefan Bradl and Marc Marquez joined him in the top three. Aleix Espargaro was Friday’s fastest rider overall courtesy of an FP1 hot lap.

Monster Yamaha Tech3's Smith set his best time of the afternoon with the track temperatures reaching over 50Â°C, his 1’42.123 lap well over a second quicker than he had gone in the morning.

The Briton ended the afternoon run just ahead of LCR Honda MotoGP’s Bradl and Repsol Honda Team Marquez, but it was NGM Forward Racing’s Espargaro who recorded the best time of the day (1’41.672) on a softer compound rear tire at his home track in the morning session.

Completing the top five on the combined timesheet was the race winner for the last two years at Barcelona-Catalunya, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) who was just over 0.6s down on Espargaro’s P1 time. Lorenzo’s best lap came in the afternoon heat, with the many riders using harder option front and rear tires in the Mediterranean sunshine.

Sixth and seventh overall were Italians Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) courtesy of their best times in FP1, with Iannone escaping unhurt from a turn 10 tumble into the gravel in the morning outing.

The overall top ten was completed by Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team).

Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) rode 32 laps over the course of the day as he assessed the condition of his right wrist, on which he had surgery after missing Mugello. He ended the day 19th overall.

Results

Pos	Rider	Num.	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Aleix Espargaro	41	ESP	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	YAMAHA	1'41.672
2	Bradley Smith	38	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	YAMAHA	1'42.123
3	Stefan Bradl	6	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	HONDA	1'42.130
4	Marc Marquez	93	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	HONDA	1'42.274
5	Jorge Lorenzo	99	ESP	Yamaha Factory Racing	YAMAHA	1'42.282
6	Andrea Iannone	29	ITA	Pramac Racing	DUCATI	1'42.411
7	Valentino Rossi	46	ITA	Yamaha Factory	YAMAHA	1'42.423
8	Pol Espargaro	44	ESP	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	YAMAHA	1'42.608
9	Dani Pedrosa	26	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	HONDA	1'42.664
10	Andrea Dovizioso	4	ITA	Ducati Team	DUCATI	1'42.812
11	Alvaro Bautista	19	ESP	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	HONDA	1'42.833
12	Yonny Hernandez	68	COL	Pramac Racing	DUCATI	1'42.860
13	Scott Redding	45	GBR	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	HONDA	1'43.612
14	Michele Pirro	51	ITA	Ducati Team	DUCATI	1'43.644
15	Cal Crutchlow	35	GBR	Ducati Team	DUCATI	1'43.725
16	Colin Edwards	5	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	YAMAHA	1'43.819
17	Karel Abraham	17	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	HONDA	1'43.905
18	Hector Barbera	8	ESP	Avintia Racing MotoGP	FTR-KAWASAKI	1'43.961
19	Nicky Hayden	69	USA	Drive M7 Aspar	HONDA	1'44.008
20	Hiroshi Aoyama	7	JPN	Drive M7 Aspar	HONDA	1'44.096
21	Michael Laverty	70	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART & PBM	1'44.450
22	Broc Parkes	23	AUS	Paul Bird Motorsport	PBM	1'44.681
23	Mike Di Meglio	63	FRA	Avintia Racing MotoGP	FTR-KAWASAKI	1'45.482
24	Michel Fabrizio	84	ITA	IodaRacing Project	IODA-SUTER	1'47.297