After threatening throughout the opening free practice session at the Misano Circuit on Friday morning, Pramac Racing's Danilo Petrucci topped the times in the second Friday session to better the sole Yamaha rider here this weekend, Maverick Vinales by a mere five thousandths of a second!

“Today is a bit strange for us, as we are starting the race weekend with just one rider,” said Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli. “Nevertheless, we made a positive start to the San Marino GP in the first two practice sessions. This morning, though Maverick was able to find a good pace, we suffered a bit from a lack of grip due to the condition of the track.”

“In the afternoon, the condition improved, so we continued to work on the fine-tuning of the bike and Maverick was able to put in a lot of laps with used tyres to prepare for the race, and his feeling was good. He put in a hot lap at the end of the FP2 session on a new tyre and set the second fastest time, missing out on first place by just 0.005s. This shows we have the speed, but we think we can better the pace even further. There's still a lot of time for improvements and we are confident that we can make another step tomorrow.

Petrucci, despite suffering from the flu, came back on track in the afternoon feeling fantastic, and after keeping pace with Marquez in FP1, completed a masterful final run with the best time in T1 and T3 and first place in Friday's combined classification.

““It was a good day. I wanted to start strongly after the difficulties of Silverstone's free practices,” Danilo said. “After the test in July I knew I had a good bike even though the weather conditions and the tires were different.  I am very happy about how we started the weekend.  Is going to be fundamental to start in a forward position here in Misano.”

In beautiful conditions after a very wet night in Italy. Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso finished both sessions in a strong third place, the final session saw him just 6 hundredths behind Petrucci and on course for a strong qualifying performance here later today.

Dani Pedrosa took over from his teammate, Marc Marquez, who was quickest in the opening free practice session , as the top Honda rider with a fourth placed finish, a tenth off the leading pace. Meanwhile, Marquez was another tenth further back in fifth and Calk Crutchlow, who is riding with an injured finger on hs left hand here this weekend, was close behind in P6.

Ducati Wild card, Michele Pirro was seventh a few hundredths ahead of Jorge Lorenzo ion eighth.

Andrea Iannone, who had a fall in FP1, was ninth fastest with Tito Rabat rounding out the top ten.

GP of San Marino – Classification after Free Practice 2:
1. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'33.231
2. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'33.236 +0.005
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 1'33.294 +0.063
4. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 1'33.346 +0.115
5. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 1'33.475 +0.244
6. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 1'33.545 +0.314
7. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team - 1'33.591 +0.360
8. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 1'33.614 +0.383
9. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'33.740 +0.509
10. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'33.820 +0.589
11. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'33.832 +0.601
12. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'33.914 +0.683
13. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'33.937 +0.706
14. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'34.054 +0.823
15. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'34.137 +0.906
16. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'34.266 +1.035
17. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'34.322 +1.091
18. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'34.411 +1.180
19. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'34.499 +1.268
20. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'34.678 +1.447
21. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'34.842 +1.611
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'34.903 +1.672
23. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'35.052 +1.821