MotoGP Indian GP: Marini tops Friday, factory Honda pair make Q2

Friday’s second 70-minute session at the Buddh International Circuit was delayed by around 45 minutes due to some logistical issues affecting the beginning of the earlier Moto3 FP2.

Once action got underway, Marini guided his year-old Ducati to a 1m44.782s to lead Pramac’s Jorge Martin by 0.008 seconds.

In a first for the 2023 season, both factory Honda riders have secured a place in Q2 for Saturday’s qualifying, after Marc Marquez was fourth and team-mate Joan Mir 10th.

Joining them will be Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who cast aside his difficult FP1 to secure a place in Q2 for the first time since the Austrian GP weekend.

The new Buddh layout continued to prove tricky for riders when second practice got underway, as KTM’s Jack Miller crashed at Turn 12 in the opening moments.

The Australian struggled for pace all afternoon and was only 18th at the chequered flag.

FP1 pacesetter Marco Bezzecchi on the second VR46 Ducati set the initial pace at 1m46.674s, before Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro leaped up to top spot with a 1m46.387s inside the first 10 minutes of the session.

Jorge Martin then went top with a 1m46.182s on his Pramac Ducati, before Bezzecchi re-established himself with a 1m45.993s with 15 minutes of the session gone.

Marini’s session was briefly interrupted by a crash at the half-hour mark as he made his way into the difficult Turn 1 right-hander.

This wouldn’t throw him off his stride, however, as he rebounded to fire in a 1m44.782s in the final moments of second practice to secure top spot.

He took over from Martin, whose 1m44.790s put him top of the standings briefly just a few moments earlier, and would be good enough to keep him second.

Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top three a further 0.043s adrift, with Marc Marquez fourth ahead of Bezzecchi.

Maverick Vinales, who led the way for a time in second practice, was sixth on the sister factory Aprilia ahead of world champion Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati.

Quartararo held onto eighth ahead of Pramac’s Johann Zarco and Honda’s Mir.

The 2020 world champion was briefly knocked out of the Q2 places as KTM’s Brad Binder jumped up to fourth with his final effort.

However, a yellow flag in the third sector after LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed at Turn 8 meant Binder’s lap was cancelled.

This dropped him down to 12th behind Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Alex Marquez on the sister Gresini Ducati, Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez – who also had a top 10-worthy lap deleted at the end of the session – rounding out the top 15.

MotoGP Indian GP FP2 results:

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Italy L. Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 25 1'44.782   172.128  
2 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 27 +0.008 0.008 172.115  
3 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 24 +0.051 0.043 172.045  
4 Spain M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 28 +0.335 0.284 171.580  
5 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 24 +0.420 0.085 171.441  
6 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 21 +0.431 0.011 171.423  
7 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 24 +0.498 0.067 171.314  
8 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 29 +0.509 0.011 171.296  
9 France J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 24 +0.523 0.014 171.273  
10 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 21 +0.550 0.027 171.230  
11 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 24 +0.624 0.074 171.109  
12 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 24 +0.757 0.133 170.894  
13 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 26 +0.768 0.011 170.876  
14 Italy F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 27 +0.794 0.026 170.834  
15 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 27 +0.807 0.013 170.813  
16 Spain R. Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 25 +0.930 0.123 170.614  
17 Portugal M. Oliveira RNF Racing 88 Aprilia 25 +1.081 0.151 170.371  
18 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 25 +1.179 0.098 170.213  
19 Spain P. Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 20 +1.329 0.150 169.972  
20 Germany S. Bradl Team LCR 6 Honda 27 +1.494 0.165 169.709  
21 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 25 +1.528 0.034 169.654  
22 Italy M. Pirro Ducati Team 51 Ducati 26 +1.791 0.263 169.236  
View full results  

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