Catalan MotoGP: Aleix Espargaro tops Friday’s Practice

Aleix Espargaro set a new lap record with the fastest time in Catalan MotoGP Practice at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro topped the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s Catalan MotoGP race as Marc Marquez missed out on Q2 for the second time in a row.

With an impressive lap time of 1.38.562s, the 34-year-old who announced his retirement on Thursday at the end of the year shattered the lap record. Meanwhile, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta finished the session 0.073 seconds behind the Aprilia rider, demonstrating KTM’s continued excellent performance from Friday morning.

Binder’s performance should give him confidence on the RC16 after the South African crashed twice on the entry to Turn 2 in the first twenty minutes of the session, his crew was forced to make changes to the bike for the remaining runs.

Francesco Bagnaia placed fourth after pushing his factory Ducati in his last run while Jack Miller of KTM came in right behind his former Ducati teammate. Following in sixth place was championship leader Jorge Martin as Enea Bastianini who made up for his lackluster showing in the first session, came in seventh place ahead of Franco Morbidelli.

Alex Rins secured Yamaha a slot in Q2 with an outstanding lap that placed him ninth as Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales rounded out the top ten, with the gap between the Aprilia riders’ being less than half a second.

Alex and Marc Marquez of Gresini Ducati narrowly missed out on Q2 after the former had a late crash over the final laps. Meanwhile, the Trackhouse Racing duo of Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez sandwiched Fabio Quartararo in the final proceedings, with the Yamaha rider relying on his second bike following an early crash in the tricky Turn 5.

VR46’s misfortunes persisted as Marco Bezzecchi finished just ahead of teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio taking positions 16 and 17 respectively. Di Giannantonio crashed out twice during the practice.

Honda’s four riders filled the final four positions, failing to keep up with the rest of the field once more. Zarco finished over half a second ahead of teammate Takaaki Nakagami. Joan Mir overcame Luca Marini, but even with the bike’s improvements, Honda’s situation still seems dire.

Stefan Bradl, the wildcard for the weekend, was unable to participate in the second session due to stomach discomfort.

2024 Catalan MotoGP Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya PR Results