MotoGP Le Mans: Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso tops FP2 with record lap

Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso was fastest in second practice for this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans, leading Marc Marquez by just under two tenths of a second.

Dovizioso, whose two-year Ducati contract extension was announced between the two Friday sessions, surged to the head of the times in the dying moments of the session with a lap of 1m31.971s.

That was enough to beat Jorge Lorenzo's qualifying record from 2016 by 0.004 seconds, and Dovizioso made one final improvement after that to end the day with a best effort of 1m31.936s.

Marquez was Dovizioso's nearest challenger, 0.168s behind, having become the first man to beat his own benchmark from the morning's first session with 15 minutes of FP2 to go.

Yamaha riders completed the top five, with Valentino Rossi making a late move to grab third, 0.243s off the pace, ahead of works team-mate Maverick Vinales and the Tech3 bike of Johann Zarco.

Home hero Zarco moved to the top with two minutes of the session to go, only to be shuffled back down the order in the closing moments.

Jack Miller was sixth on the best of the Pramac Ducatis ahead of Pol Espargaro's KTM, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia).

Lorenzo bagged the final spot in the top 10 on the second factory Ducati, beating Cal Crutchlow by 0.010s after the LCR Honda rider crashed at Turn 7 late in the session.

Like Crutchlow, Pramac's Danilo Petrucci (13th) and Suzuki duo Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins will also need to improve in Saturday morning's third practice session to be certain of securing an spot in the second part of qualifying automatically.

Scott Redding was one of three riders to crash in quick succession early in the session, along with Pol Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda).

FP2 times

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m31.936s	-	20
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m32.104s	0.168s	19
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m32.179s	0.243s	22
4	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m32.204s	0.268s	17
5	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m32.279s	0.343s	21
6	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m32.302s	0.366s	22
7	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m32.414s	0.478s	18
8	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m32.466s	0.530s	21
9	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m32.572s	0.636s	19
10	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m32.576s	0.640s	18
11	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m32.586s	0.650s	18
12	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m32.617s	0.681s	24
13	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m32.647s	0.711s	19
14	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m32.752s	0.816s	21
15	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m32.803s	0.867s	23
16	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m32.851s	0.915s	21
17	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m33.072s	1.136s	14
18	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1m33.318s	1.382s	20
19	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m33.435s	1.499s	21
20	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m33.667s	1.731s	16
21	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m33.830s	1.894s	12
22	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m33.942s	2.006s	18
23	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m34.089s	2.153s	22
24	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m34.311s	2.375s	17