Practice report

MotoGP Spanish GP: Alex Marquez leads Ducati 1-2 in Friday Practice, Pedro Acosta into Q1

Ducati and Aprilia riders shine in the all-important Practice session on Friday ahead of Saturday's qualifying

Alex Marquez topped Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix as Pedro Acosta was relegated to Q1 for the first time in the 2026 MotoGP season.

Having struggled for form so far on the factory-spec GP26, the younger Marquez returned to the front at Jerez on Friday, at a track where he claimed his maiden MotoGP victory last year.

The Spaniard led a 1-2 for Ducati in the hour-long session at Jerez, but all four full-season Aprilia RS-GPs also made it safely into the second leg of qualifying.

At the start of the session, Alex Marquez was the first rider to beat Fabio di Giannantonio’s time of 1m36.954s from FP1, finding an extra three tenths over his VR46 rival.

But just a few seconds later, di Giannantonio wrestled the crown back, lapping the circuit in 1m35.560s to set a new benchmark for the rest of the session.

That time stood unbeaten until riders switched to the soft rear tyre in the final 20 minutes of the session, with di Giannantonio himself the first to go quicker with a 1m36.267s.

It wasn’t until 11 minutes remained on the clock that the Italian was displaced from the top, with Alex Marquez going 0.066s quicker on his first flying lap on the soft Michelin.

The 30-year-old moved the goalposts on his next tour, posting a blistering time of 1m35.704s to edge over half a second clear of the rest of the field.

The closest anyone who could come to Marquez’s time was di Giannantonio, who improved to 1m36.337s in the final minutes - but still ended up three tenths off the outright pace.

Aprilia’s charge was led by factory rider Marco Bezzecchi, who finished just over half a second down following his late soft-tyre run.

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was facing Q1 heading into the dying moments of qualifying, but a late flyer lifted him to fourth place, just 0.017s behind Bezzecchi’s Aprilia.

Behind, Ai Ogura ended up sixth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, while Francesco Bagnaia recovered from a nasty crash at Turn 1 at the start of the session to finish sixth on the factory Ducati.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini) were separated by just one hundredth of a second in seventh and eighth positions respectively, with Aprilia’s Jorge Martin closely following them in ninth place.

The 2024 champion went down at Turn 13 just after the halfway point of the session, but was able to propel himself outside the elimination zone on his secondary bike.

The top 10 was completed by Tech3 rider Enea Bastianini, who emerged as the fastest rider within the depleted KTM line-up. The marque’s star rider Acosta was on course to go quickest on two separate occasions on his final run, but made errors and failed to make a significant improvement. After using up his tyres, he slipped to 15th, just ahead of factory team-mate Brad Binder.

Honda appeared strong for much of the day in the hands of LCR rider Johann Zarco, but he was booted out of the top 10 amid the late flurry of improvements, eventually finishing 12th behind factory HRC rider Joan Mir.

The fastest Yamaha was Fabio Quartararo in 17th, a second off Alex Marquez’s ultimate pace.

FiP

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	25	1'35.704		166.375	297
2	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	20	+0.333 1'36.037	0.333	165.798	295
3	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	27	+0.506 1'36.210	0.173	165.500	300
4	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	24	+0.523 1'36.227	0.017	165.471	295
5	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	23	+0.544 1'36.248	0.021	165.435	298
6	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	20	+0.561 1'36.265	0.017	165.405	295
7	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	25	+0.578 1'36.282	0.017	165.376	295
8	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	21	+0.588 1'36.292	0.010	165.359	296
9	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	19	+0.597 1'36.301	0.009	165.344	297
10	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	25	+0.655 1'36.359	0.058	165.244	300
11	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	24	+0.682 1'36.386	0.027	165.198	296
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	23	+0.706 1'36.410	0.024	165.157	299
13	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	24	+0.711 1'36.415	0.005	165.148	296
14	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	26	+0.738 1'36.442	0.027	165.102	295
15	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	24	+0.763 1'36.467	0.025	165.059	295
16	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	21	+0.881 1'36.585	0.118	164.857	295
17	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	22	+1.048 1'36.752	0.167	164.573	293
18	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	17	+1.160 1'36.864	0.112	164.383	291
19	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	21	+1.230 1'36.934	0.070	164.264	296
20	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	26	+1.293 1'36.997	0.063	164.157	288
21	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	18	+1.321 1'37.025	0.028	164.110	298
22	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	22	+1.554 1'37.258	0.233	163.717	294
23	A. Fernandez Yamaha Factory Racing	47	Yamaha	22	+1.915 1'37.619	0.361	163.111	290
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