The first day of 2018 Catalunya GP had Jorge Lorenzo as its leader. The Ducati rider from Mallorca was the only one who went faster than 1:39 and so he managed to rank first in FP2 and Friday standings. Just about one tenth behind we have the Suzuki ridden by Andrea Iannone, followed by Maverick Viñales’ Yamaha and other Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso, while Valentino Rossi (who was first in FP1) and Marc Marquez (who crashed during FP2) remained outside the top 10.
In the early stages the classification was led by Marquez, who performed many fast laps on hard tyres, but it didn’t last long, since Lorenzo kept Marquez’s pace. Behind them there were Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow, Dani Pedrosa and Danilo Petrucci, while Johann Zarco crashed at Turn 5, the same spot where later also Pol Espargaro fell. During the last few minutes, Marquez joined Zarco and “Polyccio” in the “falls report”, as he crashed at Turn 4. The same happened to Franco Morbidelli (who had already crashed in FP1), Alex Rins and Scott Redding.
Close battle is what we saw in the final stages of the session and finally Lorenzo set the fastest lap (1:38.930) on soft tyres. Second place went to Andrea Iannone, followed by Maverick Viñales, Andrea Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci. Seventh place for Johann Zarco, while Dani Pedrosa ranked eighth in front of Hafizh Syahrinand Tito Rabat. Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez finished just 11th and 12th.
