MotoGP

MotoGP Spanish GP: Bagnaia on record pace in second practice

Published

1w ago

Apr 27, 2024 / 6337 Views

The reigning world champion has won the Spanish GP for the past two years and comes into the 2024 edition off the back of two disappointing rounds in Portugal and America.

In a crash-strewn session, Bagnaia left it to the end of the hour to produce a 1m36.025s to lead the way by 0.100 seconds from Aprilia’s Vinales.

Marc Marquez looked on course to take top spot from Bagnaia at the end but came up just short with a 1m36.168s to move ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and championship leader Jorge Martin.

The Pramac rider set the early pace in the hour-long afternoon session at Jerez with a 1m37.811s, trading top spot with KTM’s Brad Binder before the South African edged clear with a 1m36.794s inside the first 10 minutes.

Then followed a period of several crashes in quick succession, with Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing) and Vinales (Aprilia) sliding off.

Just over halfway into the session, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo came off his bike at Turn 7, with Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), Dani Pedrosa (KTM) and Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse) also suffering falls.

With just over 20 minutes remaining, Vinales pushed for an early soft tyre run on his Aprilia and produced a 1m36.482s.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This was beaten by Martin with a 1m36.435s about eight minutes later, before Vinales returned his Aprilia to the top of the times with a 1m36.125s.

This lap put Vinales underneath the existing lap record, but it would be bested by 0.100s by Bagnaia on his final flying lap at the end of the session.

Gresini’s Marc Marquez completed the top three from Bezzecchi, Martin and Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta – who was the only KTM rider to make it into Q2 qualifying directly.

A costly crash for Binder in the closing stages left him at the fringes of the top 10 and eventually shuffled down to 11th when the field shook itself out.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh on the sister factory Aprilia, with Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez taking the final Q2 spots.

The rest of the KTM contingent in Pedrosa, Jack Miller – who crashed late on – and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) will join Binder in Q1 on Saturday morning, as will Pramac’s Jorge Martin, both Yamahas and all five Hondas.

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	23	1'36.025		165.819
2	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	24	+0.100 1'36.125	0.100	165.646
3	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	26	+0.143 1'36.168	0.043	165.572
4	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	20	+0.339 1'36.364	0.196	165.235
5	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	25	+0.410 1'36.435	0.071	165.114
6	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	24	+0.414 1'36.439	0.004	165.107
7	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	20	+0.421 1'36.446	0.007	165.095
8	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	26	+0.455 1'36.480	0.034	165.037
9	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	21	+0.511 1'36.536	0.056	164.941
10	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	24	+0.514 1'36.539	0.003	164.936
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	22	+0.619 1'36.644	0.105	164.757
12	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	22	+0.686 1'36.711	0.067	164.643
13	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	22	+0.875 1'36.900	0.189	164.321
14	D. Pedrosa Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	26	KTM	23	+0.919 1'36.944	0.044	164.247
15	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	23	+0.934 1'36.959	0.015	164.221
16	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	24	+0.944 1'36.969	0.010	164.205
17	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	21	+1.086 1'37.111	0.142	163.964
18	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	23	+1.252 1'37.277	0.166	163.685
19	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	24	+1.317 1'37.342	0.065	163.575
20	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	22	+1.357 1'37.382	0.040	163.508
21	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	26	+1.451 1'37.476	0.094	163.350
22	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	23	+1.586 1'37.611	0.135	163.125
23	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6	Honda	24	+1.684 1'37.709	0.098	162.961
24	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	24	+1.813 1'37.838	0.129	162.746
25	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	22	+1.877 1'37.902	0.064	162.640
View full results