Viñales tops day two at Phillip Island

Maverick Viñales has further reinforced the credentials of the changes made to the Suzuki GSX-RR machine for 2016 by finishing the second day of testing at Phillip Island top of the time sheets.

Making the most of another day hit by intermittent rain, the Spaniard was near the top of the timesheets all day long, occasionally trading the top spot only with Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi – but was able to finish 0.1 ahead with his penultimate lap of the day.

Marquez was second, less than 0.1 ahead of the Yamaha duo of Lorenzo and Rossi, as the double world champion finally starts to make progress with a so-far-troublesome 2016 RCV213.

Cal Crutchlow was fifth, despite admitting afterwards that his time came despite a difficult day of problems that saw him complete only half the laps of many of his rivals, while Hector Barbera was a surprise addition to the top six behind him.

Andrea Iannone was the first of the factory Ducatis in seventh, while a small crash towards the end of the day left Dani Pedrosa unhurt but back in eighth. The British duo of Scott Redding and Bradley Smith rounded out the top ten.

Testing concludes tomorrow, with an uncertain forecast bringing potentially more wet weather to the rain-hit Australian circuit.