Photography by Gold & Goose
One day down, two to go. The most highly-anticipate MotoGP season finale kicked off Friday at Valencia, Spain, and it was Yamaha’s world-championship contender Jorge Lorenzo ending FP2 with the fastest time of the day with a 1:31.111.
Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Ducati’s Andrea Iannone rounded out the top three in FP2 practice. The other title contender Valentino Rossi spent time in P1, but ended the day fourth fastest. Marc Marquez was fifth in FP2, but actually went faster in the morning practice session and in the combined times was second fastest.
With the backdrop of the tense world championship battle between Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, in addition to the residue of the Sepang clash between Rossi and Marquez, Valencia is sure to have record attendance and viewership.
Rossi, having exhausted all his appeals of his Malaysian penalty, now knows the score for Valencia. He will have to start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid and on Friday the riders seemed to have returned their attention to racing. Rossi has a big task before him, perhaps the biggest of his career. In spite of his seven-point lead coming into Valencia (the smallest gap going into the Motorcycle Grand Prix final since 1992 which featured the battle between Wayne Rainey and Mick Doohan) Rossi has to finish second to ensure winning what could be his eighth premier-class championship. Even though Rossi will start from the back his team feels he needs to push in practice and qualifying to find the optimum race setup.
It’s also the final MotoGP race of the last American MotoGP Champion Nicky Hayden, before he moves on to World Superbike.
Rossi led the way early in FP2, but Marquez 1:31.751 aboard his Honda. The two swapped P1 another time with about 26 minutes remaining in the session with Rossi going to the top, only to see Marquez quickly lowering the top time to 1:31.492.
With eight minutes to go Lorenzo, who’d been running third, went to P1 with a 1:31.111. Dani Pedrosa moved to second fastest with three minutes to go, just as Rossi improved his time to move to third. He was displaced by Andrea Iannone with two minutes to go.
MotoGP FP2 Practice from Valenica, Spain – Nov. 6, 2015
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 318.4 1’31.111
2 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 326.3 1’31.377 0.266 / 0.266
3 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 329.8 1’31.444 0.333 / 0.067
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 317.7 1’31.475 0.364 / 0.031
5 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 323.3 1’31.481 0.370 / 0.006
6 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 321.2 1’31.575 0.464 / 0.094
7 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 320.4 1’31.674 0.563 / 0.099
8 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 314.8 1’31.678 0.567 / 0.004
9 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 321.4 1’31.803 0.692 / 0.125
10 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 318.3 1’31.986 0.875 / 0.183
11 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 322.8 1’32.044 0.933 / 0.058
12 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 328.4 1’32.399 1.288 / 0.355
13 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 324.0 1’32.464 1.353 / 0.065
14 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 329.5 1’32.494 1.383 / 0.030
15 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 321.1 1’32.508 1.397 / 0.014
16 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 313.7 1’32.595 1.484 / 0.087
17 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 311.8 1’32.597 1.486 / 0.002
18 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 317.1 1’32.599 1.488 / 0.002
19 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 314.1 1’32.842 1.731 / 0.243
20 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 314.1 1’32.945 1.834 / 0.103
21 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 316.2 1’33.238 2.127 / 0.293
22 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 316.6 1’33.268 2.157 / 0.030
23 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 316.6 1’33.411 2.300 / 0.143
24 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 315.2 1’33.415 2.304 / 0.004
25 13 Anthony WEST AUS AB Motoracing Honda 311.9 1’33.838 2.727 / 0.423
26 23 Broc PARKES AUS E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 301.7 1’34.839 3.728 / 1.001
