Espargaro fastest as lap record tumbles in Practice 2 at Mandalika
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With less than ten minutes gone, Brad Binder was part of a two-rider at turn 11.The factory KTM rider lost the front-end of his RC16 before Augusto Fernandez fell whilst running directly behind him. The for Fernandez led to his bike sliding into Binder’s machine.Revealed: Marc Marquez’s 2024 crew chief at Gresini Ducati Alex Marquez withdraws from Indonesian MotoGPAt the head of the leaderboard was Aleix Espargaro, after the Aprilia rider overhauled early pacesetter Fabio Di Giannantonio. Jack Miller then made it three es for KTM riders after the Australian went down at turn 11. Miller fell after avoiding a slow-moving Enea Bastianini. After seeing teammate Maverick Vinales go quickest, Espargaro responded in short order with a time of 1:31.347s.After struggling for the first half of the session, Francesco Bagnaia began to find his rhythm as he went ninth quickest.The problem for Bagnaia is that title rival Jorge Martin was quicker and sat third ahead of Di Giannantonio and Marc Marquez. Still not entirely comfortable, Bagnaia was set to improve his lap time before making a mistake at the penultimate corner. Related Ducati riders have their say: Marc Marquez ‘will battle for the championship’ Marc Marquez reveals: “One year off was a possibility | Gresini took a gamble”Vinales was the next rider who came close to suffering a as he momentarily lost the front-end of his RS-GP23 at turn ten. With under 20 minutes to go, time attack runs were in full flow as Espargaro began lighting up the sector times.Espargaro gained close to three tenths on his already-leading time before beginning his next lap with two stunning sectors. However, Espargaro’s lap went to waste as he ed at turn ten. Espargaro’s teammate then became the first-ever rider to break the 1m 31s barrier at Mandalika, before Marco Bezzecchi went another two tenths clear.One rider who was not in the mix for top spot was Bagnaia, with the world champion over eight tenths down after three sectors. The factory Ducati team’s day got worse as Enea Bastianini suffered a at the beginning of his final stint – turn 11. As Martin and Brad Binder found huge amounts of time to slot into the top four, Bagnaia saw his latest lap cancelled due to yellow flags after coming across Miller who fell for a second time – turn one. After ing on his previous run, Espargaro made the most of his final time attack stint as he set a new lap record. On course to finally make it into the top ten, Bagnaia suffered a huge wobble coming into the final few corners which resulted in him losing out. Joan Mir, who was following Bagnaia closely, then ed moments later.
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