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Practice report

Barcelona MotoGP: Espargaro tops FP1 for Aprilia

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro topped the first practice session for the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix, 0.024 seconds ahead of Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli.

Watch: MotoGP: Espargaro tops FP1 at Catalan GP

FP1 was the MotoGP field’s first chance to sample the revised Turn 10 layout, which the Barcelona circuit revamped earlier this year.

Generally a low-grip circuit, lap times tumbled across the opening 10 minutes of the session and top spot changed hands a number of times.

Aleix Espargaro set the initial pace with a 1m42.318s on his Aprilia before his Honda-mounted brother Pol Espargaro took over with a 1m41.724s.

Over the following few minutes, Suzuki’s Joan Mir, Morbidelli on the SRT Yamaha, championship leader Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha and Honda’s Marc Marquez took turns heading the pack.

Pol Espargaro edged ahead of teammate Marquez with a 1m40.837s just over 10 minutes in, before Morbidelli returned to the top of the pile with a 1m40.402s.

This time stood as the benchmark until the closing moments, though most of the field elected against fitting fresh rubber for a late time attack.

Aprilia’s Espargaro did fit a set of fresh mediums to his RS-GP and produced a 1m40.378s to end the session fastest from Morbidelli.

Honda’s Pol Espargaro completed the top three ahead of the leading factory team Yamaha of Maverick Vinales.

Vinales comes into the Catalan GP having split with crew chief Esteban Garcia – ostensibly a Yamaha decision – following a difficult run of form since winning the Qatar GP, and is now working with ex-Valentino Rossi man Silvano Galbusera.

Johann Zarco was the top Ducati in fifth on his Pramac GP21, the Frenchman arriving to Barcelona with his 2022 future with Pramac secured.

Quartararo was sixth ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, with Mir in eighth on the sole Suzuki this weekend after teammate Alex Rins broke his right arm in a training crash on Thursday.

Factory Ducati pair Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the top 10, denying LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in 11th.

Jorge Martin returns to action this weekend for the first time since suffering multiple fractures in a violent practice crash in Portugal.

The Pramac rider was an impressive 12th ahead of Honda rider Marc Marquez, Tech 3’s Danilo Petrucci and the other SRT Yamaha of Rossi.

Though no real time attacks were completed in FP1, the 21-rider field was still only covered by 1.3 seconds. 

FP1 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'40.378
2 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 1'40.402 0.024
3 44 Spain Pol Espargaro
Honda 1'40.751 0.373
4 12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1'40.753 0.375
5 5 France Johann Zarco
Ducati 1'40.767 0.389
6 20 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'40.853 0.475
7 88 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'40.927 0.549
8 36 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 1'40.960 0.582
9 43 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 1'40.991 0.613
10 63 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'41.085 0.707
11 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'41.134 0.756
12 89 Spain Jorge Martin
Ducati 1'41.185 0.807
13 93 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 1'41.208 0.830
14 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci
KTM 1'41.254 0.876
15 46 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1'41.267 0.889
16 27 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 1'41.357 0.979
17 23 Italy Enea Bastianini
Ducati 1'41.363 0.985
18 73 Spain Alex Marquez
Honda 1'41.437 1.059
19 10 Italy Luca Marini
Ducati 1'41.464 1.086
20 33 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 1'41.512 1.134
21 32 Italy Lorenzo Savadori
Aprilia 1'41.744 1.366

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Next article Barcelona MotoGP: Zarco beats Morbidelli by 0.021s in FP2

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