Day 2 dawned a little chilly at the Valencia Test, and testing action therefore took a while to get in gear. Once it did, however, there were a few interesting things to keep an eye on in pitlane and more than enough drama, some of the earliest of which came courtesy of the Honda of Stefan Bradl as he came to a halt on track, and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) didn’t initially make it out of pitlane for his second run.
By midday though, the reigning Champion was more than back in business and it was Marquez who had taken back the top spot he’d earlier ceded to Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT). Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was up into second too, just 0.021 off.
KTM stole a few headlines in the morning on Day 2. For their speed – Espargaro’s impressive showing and that of Red Bull KTM Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona – and they had ‘Polyccio’ giving a tow to the new kids on the block as both Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Lecuona followed him around. But there were also a couple of crashes, one for the number 44 and one for the 27. Espargaro was second, Lecuona 10th, Pedrosa 11th and Binder 18th at 1pm.
Ducati had some sensors on their rear wheel, and a bigger ‘salad box’ was spotted in the morning to serve up a Borgo Panigale classic on Day 2. Andrea Dovizioso was the top red machine in seventh, Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) the next Ducati in P9 and Michele Pirro, Ducati Test rider, was 15th.
Aprilia had a tougher start to the day. Aleix Espargaro went down at the final corner and some time later Andrea Iannone then had some serious drama at Turn 1, the Italian forced to abandon his RS-GP at the end of the straight as it caught fire – rider ok. Although dealt with immediately, it had, left some fluid on track that caused a Red Flag until it was cleared away.