Submitted by Mike Lewis on
Aleix Espargaro shocked the field with a 1'38.776 lap to lead the second practice at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit Friday in Argentina. Espargaro's time pushed the Spanish rider more than half of a second clear of second place and put Suzuki on top of the timesheet for the second practice in a row.
Suzuki, which this year retured to MotoGP after a three-year absence from motorcycle road racing's top class, has not led two MotoGP practices since former MotoGP rider John Hopkins topped FP2 and FP3 in China in 2007 (according to MotoMatters.com Netherlands-based analytics department). With the strong, top-10 showing by the two-bike team in Austin last week, development of the new GSX-RR appears to be ahead of schedule.
Andrea Iannone put in a late fast lap to take second from World Champion Marc Marquez (3rd). Cal Crutchlow also put in his quick lap near the session's end to grab fourth. Andrea Dovisioso completed the top five, slightly more than six-tenths slower that Espargaro's Suzuki. Yamaha factory riders remained off the pace with Jorge Lorenzo in seventh and Valentino Rossi in ninth.
Espargaro was the only rider to drop into the 1'38s and it put him within a second of Marquez pole lap from 2014. Lap times could continue to fall as practice resumes Saturday with a clear sky and warm tempertures expected.
Results:
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff. / Prev. |
| 1 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Suzuki | 1'38.776 | |
| 2 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati | 1'39.311 | 0.535 / 0.535 |
| 3 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Honda | 1'39.336 | 0.560 / 0.025 |
| 4 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Honda | 1'39.403 | 0.627 / 0.067 |
| 5 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati | 1'39.434 | 0.658 / 0.031 |
| 6 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Yamaha | 1'39.463 | 0.687 / 0.029 |
| 7 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Yamaha | 1'39.648 | 0.872 / 0.185 |
| 8 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Honda | 1'39.892 | 1.116 / 0.244 |
| 9 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'39.947 | 1.171 / 0.055 |
| 10 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Ducati | 1'40.088 | 1.312 / 0.141 |
| 11 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Suzuki | 1'40.126 | 1.350 / 0.038 |
| 12 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Yamaha | 1'40.195 | 1.419 / 0.069 |
| 13 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 1'40.438 | 1.662 / 0.243 |
| 14 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | Honda | 1'40.522 | 1.746 / 0.084 |
| 15 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Honda | 1'40.586 | 1.810 / 0.064 |
| 16 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | 1'40.626 | 1.850 / 0.040 |
| 17 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Yamaha Forward | 1'40.672 | 1.896 / 0.046 |
| 18 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Honda | 1'40.846 | 2.070 / 0.174 |
| 19 | 43 | Jack MILLER | Honda | 1'40.864 | 2.088 / 0.018 |
| 20 | 15 | Alex DE ANGELIS | ART | 1'41.152 | 2.376 / 0.288 |
| 21 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | Honda | 1'41.380 | 2.604 / 0.228 |
| 22 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia | 1'41.490 | 2.714 / 0.110 |
| 23 | 63 | Mike DI MEGLIO | Ducati | 1'41.531 | 2.755 / 0.041 |
| 24 | 33 | Marco MELANDRI | Aprilia | 1'41.576 | 2.800 / 0.045 |
| 25 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Yamaha Forward | 1'41.784 | 3.008 / 0.208 |
Comments
Unexpected!
Hey this is fun!
Comeback?
Marco Melandri is doing practically the same time as Bautista. Getting his mojo back, perhaps?
But then De Angelis is still half a second ahead of them both on a non-Factory prototype, so probably too early to read into things.
Go, Alex Dangerous!
Go, Alex Dangerous!
Almost forgot what it feels like..
Just last season, we would read this page on a Friday, wondering which of the four factory bikes was most likely to lead the pack into the first corner on Sunday. The red bikes had an outside chance but nothing more.
And look what we have now! I am really enjoying this. It almost feels a bit like the first 990 days. Four manufacturers with competitive bikes. Not on the same level but at least good enough for a surprise lap. Satellite bikes good enough for a top 5 qualifying at least. On the other hand, the usual suspects on factory machines actually having to work their asses off to make the top 5 in Friday's FP! This really is a lot of fun! Even though I am not really expecting a huge surprise come sunday.
Excellent Point, Seb...
It is nice to not know what is going to happen. Maybe Carmello Ezpeleta deserves a bit of credit for the changes over the past few years. It might have prompted -- in part -- the factories to produce somewhat competitive customer bikes and encouraged Suzuki to return (along with KTM in 2016-17).