Valencia MotoGP: Lorenzo tops FP2 Marquez crashes

Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo was fastest in the second practice session for MotoGP's Valencia season finale, which ended with title favourite Marc Marquez crashing.

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 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.

However, Lorenzo first outpaced Pedrosa by a small margin and then improved half a second further just as the final four minutes approached.

The Ducati rider's 1m30.640s became the benchmark time for the day, with Marquez's Honda teammate Pedrosa in second place, just 0.122s slower.

A late improvement from Marquez's title challenger Andrea Dovizioso put the Italian in third, followed by top Yamaha Johann Zarco.

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 teammate 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, but his FP1 time still grants him a spot in Q2.

Apart from Iannone and Marquez, Aleix and Pol Espargaro also had late incidents.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Michael van der Mark had another disappointing practice, as he was again last, 2.4s off the pace.