Lorenzo tops FP2, Marquez suffers late crash

Honda rider Marquez, who was vying with Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa to top the opening day of practice, fell at Turn 2 just as the chequered flag fell.

Marquez was OK, having stood up immediately after the incident, with his bike appearing to escape any significant damage.

He had been second, narrowly behind Pedrosa and just ahead of Lorenzo, for the majority of the session before jumping into the lead with 14 minutes left on the clock.

Lorenzo outpaced Pedrosa by a small margin and then improved by another half a second in the closing minutes to end up on a 1m30.640s.

Pedrosa ended up in second place, just 0.122s slower as the lead Honda, while a late improvement from Marquez's title challenger Andrea Dovizioso put the Italian third, ahead of Tech3's Johann Zarco, the top Yamaha.

Marquez slipped to fifth, ahead of the satellite Hondas of Jack Miller (Marc VDS) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR), while Michele Pirro brought the third factory Ducati into the top eight.

The top 10 was completed by Valentino Rossi on the best of the factory Yamahas and Pol Espargaro's KTM.

Rossi, along with team-mate Maverick Vinales, who was 11th in FP2, will need to improve in Saturday morning's session to be sure of a Q2 slot, as they are only 11th and 12th in the combined order.

Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone suffered a late crash in the session and was only 18th - though his FP1 time still grants him a spot in Q2 - and Aleix and Pol Espargaro also had late incidents.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Michael van der Mark was last again, 2.4s off the pace.

FP2 times