A busy hour of operating to conclude Friday on the Mandalika observe concluded with Espargaro firing in a brand new all-time lap document of 1m30.474s within the closing seconds.
This deposed VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi, who underwent surgical procedure on a damaged collarbone 5 days in the past and solely turned as much as Lombok this morning, after the Italian went prime with 10 minutes remaining.
He would find yourself third behind Maverick Vinales on the sister manufacturing unit Aprilia, whereas Brad Binder recovered from an early tangle to complete fourth.
Championship chief Bagnaia endured a tricky Friday on his manufacturing unit Ducati and will solely go sixteenth within the second observe.
On track to set a prime 10 lap to get straight into qualifying Q2 on his final effort, a mistake on the third-to-last nook resigned him to his first Q1 look because the Spanish GP.
The early tempo within the hour-long second observe was set by Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, who discovered on Thursday that he might be moved apart for Marc Marquez subsequent 12 months.
Di Giannantonio’s time stood agency for round 10 minutes earlier than Aleix Espargaro made his first play for the highest of the occasions with a 1m31.783s, which he duly improved to a 1m31.466s.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Crew
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Crew-mate Vinales then took over with a 1m31.351s, earlier than Espargaro discovered extra tempo with a 1m31.347s inside the primary quarter-hour of the session.
This is able to preserve the Aprilia rider prime of the order till the session ticked into its last quarter-hour, when he produced a 1m31.088s to strengthen his place.
Seconds later, Espargaro slid off his RS-GP at Flip 10. On the similar time, Vinales went prime with a 1m30.853s earlier than Bezzecchi shocked on his year-old Ducati with a 1m30.644s.
Regardless of his tumble, Espargaro rebounded to publish a 1m30.474s with simply over a minute remaining, which cemented him prime spot by 0.154s from Vinales.
Binder was the unlucky sufferer in a crash for fellow KTM rider Augusto Fernandez at the beginning of the session, when the Tech3 rider slid off his bike at Flip 11 and picked up the South African as he ran off observe.
Each have been unhurt, with Binder ending the session fourth forward of form-man Jorge Martin on his Pramac Ducati.
Marc Marquez was sixth on his manufacturing unit Honda forward of his rumoured alternative Miguel Oliveira (RNF Aprilia) and Di Giannantonio.
Jack Miller on the sister manufacturing unit KTM was ninth regardless of crashing twice in second observe, whereas Fabio Quartararo accomplished the highest 10 for Yamaha.
Pol Espargaro missed out on a Q2 place by 0.047s on his Tech3 GasGas forward of the returning Luca Marini (VR46) following his harm woes in India.
Johann Zarco (Pramac) additionally missed the Q2 lower, as did RNF’s Raul Fernandez and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli – all of whom besting Bagnaia in sixteenth.
Honda’s Joan Mir was trailing Bagnaia on his last flying lap when the Ducati rider made his mistake, with the Spaniard crashing on the similar nook and leaving himself in nineteenth.
Enea Bastianini and Alex Rins, each getting back from harm, accomplished the depleted 21-rider area after Alex Marquez withdrew from the rest of the weekend resulting from ache in his recently-fractured ribs.