MotoGP: Marquez dominates second practice

Marc Marquez remained a class apart in the second MotoGP practice session at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix.

After his commanding morning performance, Marquez quickly brushed aside early practice two pacesetter Andrea Dovizioso and then gave himself a one-second margin over the pack with a 2m02.126s halfway through the session. The Honda rider might have improved on that with his very last lap, but traffic at Woodcote spoilt it.
Stefan Bradl ended up as Marquez's closest rival on the LCR Honda, half a second down.

Dovizioso was third for Ducati, claiming the place from Bradley Smith with his last lap.

There was plenty of encouragement for the home crowd, with Smith keeping his Tech 3 Yamaha in the top three for a long spell, and countryman Scott Redding putting Gresini's production Honda sixth.

Yonny Hernandez also starred with fifth place on Pramac's older-spec Ducati, two places ahead of teammate Andrea Iannone's upgraded bike.

As the underdogs and home riders forced their way into the top 10, Marquez's regular challengers continued to struggle as they did in the first session. Dani Pedrosa was only ninth on the second works Honda, this time 1.284s slower than Marquez, while neither factory Yamaha made the top 10, with Jorge Lorenzo 11th and Valentino Rossi 13th.

MotoGP's Friday running passed relatively incident-free. Bradl, Pedrosa and Hiroshi Aoyama all had minor trips off the road, and Leon Camier's Aspar Honda parked out on track late in the session.