A week on from heading an historic Aprilia 1-2 at the Catalan GP, Espargaro will face the opening segment of qualifying on Saturday after a late fast crash at the penultimate corner on Friday afternoon at Misano.
A last-gasp effort from Bezzecchi of 1m30.846s, marking a new lap record, put him top of the order from Aprilia’s Vinales.
KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa completed the top three on his experimental RC16 featuring a carbon fibre chassis.
Pedrosa towed former Honda team-mate Marc Marquez into a Q2 spot in sixth, while neither Yamaha rider made it into the top 10.
Fabio Quartararo set the initial pace in second practice on a hot Friday afternoon in Italy with a 1m34.185s on his Yamaha, before Vinales took over with a 1m34.129s.
KTM’s Brad Binder lowered the pace to a 1m32.554s, before Vinales went on a string of session-topping times, culminating in a 1m31.794s.
With 10 minutes of the session gone, Bezzecchi hit the front for the first time with a 1m37.785s, which stood as the reference time for the next 13 minutes.
Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin was the rider to depose VR46’s Bezzecchi with a 1m31.562s, before Pedrosa moved to the top of the order with a 1m31.453s.
Martin briefly went faster with a 1m31.416s, before Bezzecchi kicked off the time attack phase of the session with a 1m31.388s.
Source: Autosport