In the Andalusian hills which border the Jérez de la Frontera track, scene this weekend of the fourth round of the season, Bagnaia, 5th in the championship, beat Maverick Vinales, the strong driver of the moment. Riding his Aprilia, the Spaniard remained flawless during the last round, in the United States, where he won the sprint and the GP.
Quartararo and Zarco in the repechage
Another Spaniard, the six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, completes the Top 3 while his compatriot, the prodigy Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3) took the sixth best time of the afternoon, behind Jorge Martin, leader of the championship and fifth on the timesheet. If he won on Sunday on his home soil, Acosta, 19, would become the youngest to win in the premier category, erasing the record of Marquez who, for his part, has never been so close to winning a GP, after having turned the page of ten years of history with Honda.
Arriving this season at Ducati-Gresini, the six-time MotoGP world champion has not won since October 2021 (Emilia-Romagna GP). “The objective for the moment remains the podium” in GP, he however tempered on Friday. This season, the Catalan star has two podiums, only in sprint races (in Portugal and the United States).
The drivers having achieved the ten best combined times of these two practice sessions participate directly in the second qualifying session (Q2), which will determine on Saturday the first twelve places on the starting grid for the sprint (Saturday at 3 p.m.) and the GP Sunday (2 p.m.). The others, like the French Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR), 18th, and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), 20th, will participate in a preliminary qualifying session (Q1) contested on Saturday at 10:50 a.m. and of which the two fastest are drafted for Q2.
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This weekend, the grid will have three drivers in addition to the usual 22 starters since the Spaniard Dani Pedrosa for KTM, the German Stefan Bradl for Honda and the Italian Lorenzo Savadori for Aprilia benefit from a wildcard, an invitation to compete the test.
