Bastianini leads Miller in FP2, Acosta misses Q2 cut

The dusty conditions that affected the morning session had improved significantly for second practice, with lap times improving by over 1.5 seconds.

Bastianini set the best pace on his factory team Ducati with a 1m38.057s, leading the way by 0.118s from KTM’s Jack Miller.

Marquez completed the top three despite suffering his first race weekend crash of the year on the Gresini Ducati, when the eight-time world champion slid off at Turn 5 late on.

Jorge Martin was fourth on the Pramac Ducati from KTM’s Brad Binder, while both factory Yamaha’s delivered a shock to rookie sensation Pedro Acosta (Tech3 GasGas) by dumping him out of the top 10 and into Q1 for qualifying on Saturday.

VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi set the early pace in second practice at a 1m39.996s, before quickly giving way to team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio on a 1m39.936s.

Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha then moved clear with a 1m39.199s, which stood as the reference lap over 20 minutes before Marc Marquez made his first trip to the top of the standings with a 1m39.110s just under half an hour in.

Martin and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales – who was the first significant improver on fresh soft rubber – deposed Marquez over the next 10 minutes, but the Gresini rider found his way back to the top of the timesheets with a 1m38.629s with 18 minutes to go.

He followed this up with a 1m38.559s, before Bastianini produced the 1m38.057s with 12 minutes to go that would ultimately top the session.

Marquez was unable to fight to reclaim his place at the head of the field when he crashed at the start of his final run.

The Gresini rider got loose on the way into the downhill braking of Turn 5 and slid off, doing so moments after team-mate Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 14.

Marc Marquez held onto third despite this behind Miller – who took a tumble earlier in the session – and Bastianini.

Behind Martin and Binder came Bezzecchi, with Vinales, reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and the Yamaha duo of Quartararo and Alex Rins rounding out the top 10.

The late improvement for the Yamaha pair meant Acosta missed a place in Q2 by just 0.039s, with the Tech3 rider 11th ahead of Di Giannantonio, Alex Marquez and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro – who crashed in the closing stages of second practice at Turn 4.

Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli was another late crasher,…