All you need to know from MotoGP’s second COTA practice

Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco was quickest in the second MotoGP Friday practice at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.

key moments:

> Ducati scores 1-2-4

> Marquez sixth as comeback continues

> KTM’s well outside top 10

The pace in the second session was considerably better than in the opening one right away, and an early soft-tyre run from Alex Rins shortly after the halfway point elevated him a second clear of the lap he’d managed to top FP1.

The others followed his lead in the final minutes, with Jack Miller producing the first sub-2m03s lap of the weekend that looked to stand a good chance of being the best of the session – only for Zarco to then find an extra quarter of a second .

There was just enough time left for many of Zarco’s rivals to have a go at surpassing his 2m02.542s laptime, but none came anywhere near, as he and Miller made up a Ducati 1-2.

Yamaha’s reigning champion Fabio Quartararo stopped it from being a Ducati 1-2-3 by jumping ahead of Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) for third at the checkered flag, while Rins wound up shuffled down to fifth.

He was 0.011s ahead of Marc Marquez, with Honda’s six-time champion returning this weekend after recovering from double vision.

Maverick Vinales was the top Aprilia in seventh, four places up on his team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who scored a historic first MotoGP win for the brand last weekend.

Joan Mir (Suzuki) took eighth, followed by Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin (Pramac), the pair making it five Ducatis in the top 10.

Brad Binder was the lead KTM all the way down in 13th, 0.996s off the pace, with teammate Miguel Oliveira a puzzling last another two seconds down.

The only crash in the session belonged to RNF Yamaha’s rookie Darryn Binder, coming at the very end of the running.

Practice 2 results

position	Surname	team	bike	Gap Next	gap leader	best time
1	Johann Zarco	Pramac Racing	Ducati			2m02.542s
2	Jack Miller	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati	+0.247s	+0.247s	2m02.789s
3	Fabio Quartararo	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+0.048s	+0.295s	2m02.837s
4	Enea Bastianini	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+0.047s	+0.342s	2m02.884s
5	Alex Rins	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+0.146s	+0.488s	2m03.03s
6	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+0.011s	+0.499s	2m03.041s
7	Maverick Vinales	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.044s	+0.543s	2m03.085s
8th	Joan Mir	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+0.058s	+0.601s	2m03.143s
9	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati	+0.044s	+0.645s	2m03.187s
10	Jorge Martin	Pramac Racing	Ducati	+0.168s	+0.813s	2m03.355s
11	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.015s	+0.828s	2m03.37s
12	Pol Espargaro	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+0.068s	+0.896s	2m03.438s
13	Brad Binder	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.1s	+0.996s	2m03.538s
14	Luca Marini	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+0.024s	+1.02s	2m03.562s
15	Andrea Dovizioso	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+0.144s	+1.164s	2m03.706s
16	Alex Marquez	LCR Honda Castrol	Honda	+0.089s	+1.253s	2m03.795s
17	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+0.279s	+1.532s	2m04.074s
18	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+0.293s	+1.825s	2m04.367s
19	Marco Bezzecchi	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+0.096s	+1.921s	2m04.463s
20	Remy Gardner	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.072s	+1.993s	2m04.535s
21	Franco Morbidelli	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+0.129s	+2.122s	2m04.664s
22	Darryn Binder	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+0.015s	+2.137s	2m04.679s
23	Raúl Fernández	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.091s	+2.228s	2m04.77s
24	Miguel Oliveira	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.228s	+2.456s	2m04.998s

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