Practice report

MotoGP Indian GP: Marini tops Friday, factory Honda pair make Q2

Luca Marini completed a VR46 Racing clean sweep on Friday at the MotoGP Indian Grand Prix after topping second practice, while both factory Hondas made the Q2 cut.

Friday’s second 70-minute session at the Buddh International Circuit was delayed by around 45 minutes due to some logistical issues affecting the beginning of the earlier Moto3 FP2.

Once action got underway, Marini guided his year-old Ducati to a 1m44.782s to lead Pramac’s Jorge Martin by 0.008 seconds.

In a first for the 2023 season, both factory Honda riders have secured a place in Q2 for Saturday’s qualifying, after Marc Marquez was fourth and team-mate Joan Mir 10th.

Joining them will be Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who cast aside his difficult FP1 to secure a place in Q2 for the first time since the Austrian GP weekend.

The new Buddh layout continued to prove tricky for riders when second practice got underway, as KTM’s Jack Miller crashed at Turn 12 in the opening moments.

The Australian struggled for pace all afternoon and was only 18th at the chequered flag.

FP1 pacesetter Marco Bezzecchi on the second VR46 Ducati set the initial pace at 1m46.674s, before Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro leaped up to top spot with a 1m46.387s inside the first 10 minutes of the session.

Jorge Martin then went top with a 1m46.182s on his Pramac Ducati, before Bezzecchi re-established himself with a 1m45.993s with 15 minutes of the session gone.

Marini’s session was briefly interrupted by a crash at the half-hour mark as he made his way into the difficult Turn 1 right-hander.

This wouldn’t throw him off his stride, however, as he rebounded to fire in a 1m44.782s in the final moments of second practice to secure top spot.

He took over from Martin, whose 1m44.790s put him top of the standings briefly just a few moments earlier, and would be good enough to keep him second.

Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top three a further 0.043s adrift, with Marc Marquez fourth ahead of Bezzecchi.

Maverick Vinales, who led the way for a time in second practice, was sixth on the sister factory Aprilia ahead of world champion Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati.

Quartararo held onto eighth ahead of Pramac’s Johann Zarco and Honda’s Mir.

The 2020 world champion was briefly knocked out of the Q2 places as KTM’s Brad Binder jumped up to fourth with his final effort.

However, a yellow flag in the third sector after LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed at Turn 8 meant Binder’s lap was cancelled.

This dropped him down to 12th behind Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Alex Marquez on the sister Gresini Ducati, Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez – who also had a top 10-worthy lap deleted at the end of the session – rounding out the top 15.

MotoGP Indian GP FP2 results:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	25	1'44.782		172.128
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	27	+0.008	0.008	172.115
3	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	24	+0.051	0.043	172.045
4	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	28	+0.335	0.284	171.580
5	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	24	+0.420	0.085	171.441
6	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	21	+0.431	0.011	171.423
7	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	24	+0.498	0.067	171.314
8	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	29	+0.509	0.011	171.296
9	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	24	+0.523	0.014	171.273
10	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	21	+0.550	0.027	171.230
11	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	24	+0.624	0.074	171.109
12	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	24	+0.757	0.133	170.894
13	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	26	+0.768	0.011	170.876
14	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	27	+0.794	0.026	170.834
15	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	27	+0.807	0.013	170.813
16	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	25	+0.930	0.123	170.614
17	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	25	+1.081	0.151	170.371
18	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	25	+1.179	0.098	170.213
19	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	20	+1.329	0.150	169.972
20	S. Bradl Team LCR	6	Honda	27	+1.494	0.165	169.709
21	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	25	+1.528	0.034	169.654
22	M. Pirro Ducati Team	51	Ducati	26	+1.791	0.263	169.236
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