Maverick Vinales produced another astonishing display of his talent on Thursday at Phillip Island as he dominated the second day of the MotoGP pre-season test. The Spaniard lapped within a second of the fastest lap ever seen at the Australian circuit to top the timesheets, half a second clear of a chasing pack led by Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow.
Vinales was only fourth fastest on day one but Yamaha’s new signing chopped over a second off his Wednesday best with a stunning 1:28.847, six tenths faster than Marquez’s benchmark from the opening day, before going on to produce a relentless run of 1:29s laps over a longer distance. The world champion soon responded, climbing to second with his quickest lap of the week, but the Honda rider still trailed by 0.462s.
Several other riders made sizeable gains overnight with Aleix Espargaro clocking a 1:29.501 aboard his Aprilia, an improvement of 1.3 seconds, to go third fastest. The Spaniard was knocked back down the order later in the day though as Crutchlow found time, matching Marquez’s time to go third, while Alvaro Bautista and Andrea Dovizioso took their Ducatis into the top five.
The next of the Yamahas came in the form of Jonas Folger whose impressive winter continued. The German rookie was seventh fastest ahead of Valentino Rossi who paid the price for failing to improve overnight, ‘The Doctor’ claiming to have gone in the wrong direction on set-up. Alex Rins was another of the day’s big movers, going from nineteenth to ninth, while Jack Miller made the top ten for the second day running.
2017 MotoGP Official Pre-Season Test: Phillip Island (Day Two)
[table id=1752 /]
