Nakagami tops scorching FP2, Vinales quickest overall

2020 Andalucia MotoGP - Free Practice Results (2)

Maverick Vinales takes the overnight advantage through to Saturday’s all-important FP3 session as Takaaki Nakagami topped the timesheets in the warmer and therefore slower FP2 session.

With the majority of riders using the session – which mirrors the time of Sunday’s race – to work on race set-up and conduct longer stints, some of the lesser fancied names got their time to shine with their own time attacks.

As such. Nakagami sprung to the top of the leaderboard on the LCR Honda with 1m 37.715secs, seven tenths down on Vinales’ FP1 leading time and even two tenths down on his own best from the morning.

The Japanese rider led Johann Zarco, who put a tumble behind him on the Avintia Ducati to claim second in the afternoon, ahead of Pol Espargaro, who was another to lay his bike down en route to third position.

However, just three riders improved their overall times in FP2, though Zarco was the only one to moderately improve his overall position by rising to 12th.

The other two were injured returnees Cal Crutchlow and Alex Rins, though they remained 20th and 21st respectively. The pair completed a more representative session by completing 19 and 16 laps.

As such, Vinales and Rossi hold a Yamaha 1-2 overnight, ahead of impressive rookie Brad Binder on the KTM, with Franco Morbidelli and Espargaro completing the top five positions.

Marc Marquez opted to sit out Friday’s practice sessions to give his recently operated on arm an extra day of recuperation, though the Spaniard plans to return to action on Saturday where he will need to crack the top ten straight away to make Q2 directly.