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The rain did not allow a moment of reprieve in Valencia, so much that it played the main role in FP2 as well. A session conditioned once again by the water to the point of forcing race direction to wave the red flag for a few minutes. Compared to the opening session, one and a half seconds slower, so none of the riders were able to improve.
That said, the one who seems to have the right confidence in the wet is Danilo Petrucci. As already seen on other occasions, the team Pramac rider proved to be the fastest in the afternoon thanks to his time of 1’41”318. In fact, the Italian was four tenths better than Marc Márquez, who was uncatchable in the morning. Marc used FP2 to work already on race strategy, focusing on the soft tyre. It was the same tyre used by Valentino Rossi who was just three and a half tenths behind him (+0.763). The Doctor’s therefore proved to be the fastest Yamaha in the wet, to the point of finishing ahead of the ones ridden by Maverick Viñales (7th +1.428) and di Johann Zarco, the latter also victim of a crash. At this point, number 46 can only hope for better conditions on Saturday morning, because the risk is that he may have to go through Q1 in order to make it into the second qualifying session.
Looking over to the other side of the garage, Viñales is seventh, whereas Zarco stayed in the garage after ending up in the gravel, filing away his session with the twentieth time, almost three seconds behind the leader. So, at the top of the rankings, Suzuki stands out, ridden by Andrea Iannone (+1.047), with Aleix Espargaró and his Aprilia just 20 thousandths behind. This is an encouraging sign for the RS-GP in the wet, managing to finish ahead of his brother Pol, although at the moment he is still not through to Q2. In the top ten on Friday afternoon was also Scott Redding ahead of Bradley Smith and Alex Rins.
Moving over to the Ducati camp, Andrea Dovizioso took advantage of the session to concentrate on tyres, namely the soft and medium. In the end, the Italian discarded the second tyre, returning to the one he had initially chosen. The rider representing the manufacturer from Borgo Panigale also worked on race pace, partially because the time he did in the morning was fair enough. On the other side of the garage, Jorge Lorenzo did the 15th best time.
FP2 was definitely not the ideal session to try and shave off a few tenths, so the Majorcan was already thinking about FP3. A session where he’ll be forced to follow his rivals from behind, since he is out of Q2 by more than seven tenths. The same goes for Franco Morbidelli who is ahead of him in the combined times. Besides Zarco, Xavier Simeon and Stefan Bradl also ended up in the gravel.
