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Morbidelli took control of the times in the first five minutes of this afternoon’s session, setting the starting pace at 1m41.143s with his Petronas Yamaha ‘A-spec’.
The San Marino race winner improved to 1m40.672s on his follow-up tour, with his next effort of 1m40.573s as the benchmark for much of the session.
Morbidelli continued his race on the medium rear tire, though he stopped with around 25 minutes of the session to run after slipping off his Yamaha into Turn 10 to the left.
The strong wind wreaked havoc on the previous Moto3 FP2, and several MotoGP riders were trapped in the first 20 minutes of the session.
Zarco crashed his Avintia Ducati into Turn 5 on the left, while Honda’s Stefan Bradl crashed the front of his RC213V into Turn 2.
Morbidelli’s time was threatened on Joan Mir’s first fastest lap on fresh soft rubber, with the Suzuki rider losing by 0.062 seconds at the end with less than eight minutes to go.
Valentino Rossi on the factory Yamaha got even closer on his first attack, guiding his M1 into a lap just 0.002 seconds off his protégé’s best effort.
Mir turned on the timing screens on his next lap and brought his Suzuki to 1m40.441s to take first place.
KTM’s Brad Binder was the first rider to dethrone FP1’s best Fabio Quartararo when he shot in a 1m40.008s to lead the group by four tenths in one stage.
But his reign was short-lived, as Morbidelli and Zarco were setting up the fastest sectors on their final laps.
Morbidelli put in his best effort, 1: 39.789 seconds to finish the fastest Friday of all ahead of the French, who finished with 0.109 seconds at the checkered flag.
Binder completed the top three ahead of Maverick Vinales in the official Yamaha team and Takaaki Nakagami of LCR, ensuring that three 2019 bikes took the top five.
Mir returned to sixth place ahead of Pol Espargaró’s KTM sister, while Alex Márquez (Honda), Rossi and Alex Rins’ second Suzuki completed the top 10.
A late issue for Quartararo meant he was unable to go out for a time attack and finished 14th on time sheets.
FP2 proved difficult for the Ducati riders on the GP20, with Jack Miller (Pramac) almost a second off the pace in 11th position, while Andrea Dovizioso was 1.3 seconds behind Morbidelli in 18th.
Francesco Bagnaia was 20th and Danilo Petrucci 2.4 seconds off the pace in 22nd in the last, although only Miller completed a race on soft tires in his GP20 at the end.
