Pedrosa Leads Honda 1-2 In FP2

Jun 25, 2015
3 min read

Dani Pedrosa ended the second free practice session of the day fastest after a sensational lap late in the day saw the Spaniard snatch top spot away from his Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez. Pedrosa has looked more comfortable on the bike out of the two riders, and the new exhaust the Spaniard is running has clearly allowed him to push a little harder. Pedrosa's time isn't just for show either; he was very quick and consistent on used tyres. His 1:33.450 lap is the fastest ever around the TT Circuit Assen.

Marquez will be pretty happy with 2nd quickest on the time sheets, but there is still a lot of work to do on his side of the garage. Marquez had two rear-end moments at turn one, suggesting that stability at the rear isn't totally sorted despite the chassis changes made for this weekend. Patrick Appleton of Bike Sport News put is perfectly on twitter: “Marquez looks like a crash waiting to happen”. The Spaniard is still too aggressive for the bike.

Valentino Rossi spent the majority of the 45-minutes running the hard rear tyre as he evaluates it as a race option. He was 5th quickest on that medium front/hard rear combination which is quite impressive. The Doctor took to the track on a new medium rear slick in the final 15-minutes of the session and went 3rd quickest with a 1:33.662. The Italian needs to improve his qualifying performances if he is to start winning races again, and though there isn't any guarantee of the weather being good tomorrow, he is certainly on the right path to doing so.

Jorge Lorenzo was given a second of the new chassis after testing the old and new one back-to-back in FP1. Again though he wasn't quite as strong as we'd seen the Spaniard in previous race weekends, ending up 6th with a 1:33.741. Maybe it's just that this circuit isn't quite to his liking, but given Rossi's strong pace on the hard tyre and Lorenzo's disliking for it his run of wins does look under threat.

Amdrea Iannone and Ducati showed a little more pace this afternoon in 4th but Andrea Dovizioso was only 7th. The team struggled with rear-end stability in Barcelona, so one can only wonder whether this is still a problem given the nature of this circuit. FP4 will be very telling indeed... provided it is dry.

Danilo Petrucci has had a better time of things on the Pramac Ducati GP14.1 in 9th. If it does rain tomorrow and Saturday watch out for the Italian as the GP14.1 goes well in the wet.

One team that won't want rain tomorrow will be Monster Tech3 Yamaha as both riders sit outside the top ten on the combined sheets. Both riders did the same as Rossi and ran the hard rear tyre early in the session, but failed to put together a decent tour on the medium rear. Both Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith were 11th and 13th respectively, and their pace from FP1 does indicate more in prospect for the duo.

FP2 Top 10:

1st Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team, 1:33.450

2nd Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, 1:33.589

3rd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:33.662

4th Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team, 1:33.699

5th Cal Crutchlow, CWM LCR Honda Team, 1:33.734

6th Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:33.741

7th Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team, 1:33.844

8th Aleix Espargaro, Team Suzuki Ecstar, 1:33.857

9th Danilo Petrucci, Octo Pramac Racing Team Ducati, 1:34.133

10th Maverick Vinales, Team Suzuki Ecstar, 1:34.232

Full results can be found here: