Marquez on the pace on Friday afternoon
Friday, 16 May 2014
As the MotoGP™ action on the first day of the 2014 Monster Energy Grand Prix concluded at Le Mans, Marc Marquez outpaced his fellow premier class riders, leading the way from Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista in FP2.
Having also topped the timesheet in the morning session, Marquez quickened the pace in the afternoon sunshine, registering a 1’33.452 best time, which is under the fastest lap in a race at Le Mans set by Dani Pedrosa in 2011.
Behind Repsol Honda man Marquez in FP2 was the impressive Iannone (Pramac Racing) who appears to be enjoying his riding more than ever this season. He was just 0.007s behind Marquez whilst GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Bautista was just over 0.2s down.
Making up for a big crash in FP1, Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) was fourth best with a time less than 0.5s off Marquez’ pace – whilst Pedrosa was fifth with a similar pace to Smith.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) were also within a top ten which was completed by Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP). Rossi produced a slight, late improvement to move up from 11th, despite a run off track towards the end of the session.
A crash for Moto2™ 2013 Le Mans race winner Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) with 15 minutes to go disrupted his FP2 workout at turn 9 but he was not hurt and went straight back out on a second bike. A long run-off around turn 7 (Museum Corner) saw the older Espargaro brother do well to keep bike upright through the gravel.
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