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MotoGP, FP2: Yamaha on the up with Vinales, 1st ahead of Iannone

Petrucci lies third on the Ducati, followed by Rossi and Crutchlow, Dovizioso 6th, Lorenzo 7th, Marquez 8th, the only top rider on a used tyre

MotoGP: FP2: Yamaha on the up with Vinales, 1st ahead of Iannone

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It's still only Firday afternoon, but FP2 had all the flavor of a qualifying session. Rather than making calculations and saving the tyres, riders headed out on the soft tyre in the final minutes with only one goal - to set a fast time.

The quickest proved to be Maverick Vinales, who set a 1’33”378. A performance that saw him put his M1 out front, leaving the Spaniard with a smile on his face. Andrea Iannone came close to the Yamaha rider in the closing stages, but The Maniac had to settle for a gap of 0.121 of a second.

Valentino Rossi (+0.401) further confirms the M1's competitiveness at the Assen track, lying fourth, just 0.015 of a second behind the first Ducati, or rather that of Danilo Petrucci. Despite closing four tenths behind his team-mate, the Doctor seems to make the difference in the central sector of the track, though he's losing a little in the first sector.

Back to the Ducati camp, and Andrea Dovizioso (6th +0.481) and Jorge Lorenzo (7th +0.492) have proved that they have every intention of being in the mix, the pair separated by just 11 thousandths of a second. Despite a few doubts, the red bike appears to be performing well at the Dutch track.

The factory GP18 riders are followed by Marc Marquez on the Honda (+0.663). Let's not be quick to judge though, as #93 was the only top rider who did not use the soft tyre, prefering to work with the hard solution for the entire session. Unlike Crutchlow (5°, +0.434), who was the quickest of the Honda riders, while Dani Pedrosa (+0.789) closes eleventh behind Johann Zarco (+0.755).

Alex Rins (+0.669) also closed inside the top ten, ninth at the session's end, while Aleix Espargarò, Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli all missed out.

Translated by Heather Watson
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