Vinales leads FP2, Quartararo sidelined

The Petronas SRT rider was flicked from his M1 late on in a wet first session from Phillip Island at the Turn 6 left-hander at Siberia and suffered a hematoma in his left ankle.

While declared fit to continue, SRT opted to bench Quartararo for the afternoon session, which will resign him to Q1 if grim weather forecasts for Saturday are to be believed.

After setting the pace in the wet FP1, Vinales was also on top for the majority of FP2, with Honda’s Marc Marquez only leading early on, and briefly in the middle of the session.

Vinales built a sizeable lead with a 1m29.195s with 17 minutes left on the clock, a time he was able to improve on twice more to end up with a 1m28.824s.

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso moved up to second with a time set after the checkered flag fell, but his deficit to the Yamaha man was 0.496s.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow took third ahead of Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller (Pramac) as three Ducatis made it into the top five.

Marquez had to settle for sixth after an overtake at Turn 11 on team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on his final lap resulted in the two Repsol Hondas making slight contact, and a piece flying off of one of the RC213Vs.

He still narrowly beat the sister works Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, who was seventh, followed by Suzuki’s Alex Rins, SRT’s Franco Morbidelli and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

LCR stand-in Johann Zarco ended his first dry session on a Honda in 15th, 1.617s off the pace, but nearly two tenths faster than Lorenzo, who was 16th.

Two riders, Pol Espargaro (KTM) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac), crashed at the end of the session at the Hayshed right-hander and the long left of the Southern Loop in the closing stages.

position	riders	team	bike	time	gap	laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m28.824s	–	25
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m29.320s	0.496s	22
3	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m29.325s	0.501s	22
4	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	Ducati	1m29.327s	0.503s	20
5	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m29.344s	0.520s	20
6	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m29.421s	0.597s	19
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m29.436s	0.612s	21
8th	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m29.472s	0.648s	21
9	Franco Morbidelli	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	1m29.718s	0.894s	21
10	Alex Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m29.791s	0.967s	18
11	Joan Mir	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m29.875s	1.051s	24
12	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m29.997s	1.173s	20
13	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m30.170s	1.346s	18
14	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m30.426s	1.602s	17
15	Johann Zarco	LCR Honda	Honda	1m30.441s	1.617s	21
16	George Lorenzo	Honda	Honda	1m30.706s	1.882s	19
17	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m30.859s	2.035s	17
18	Mika Kallio	KTM	KTM	1m30.865s	2.041s	21
19	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m30.940s	2.116s	21
20	Miguel Oliveira	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m31.404s	2,580s	21
21	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m31.459s	2,635s	22