Argentina – EL2: Aprilia on pace, Quartararo lacking

New Aprilia double during the second test session. The Italian brand is happy in Argentina, fabio quartararo a little less.

Although the sky remained threatening, the expected rain was ultimately not there for this second test session on the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. 10 places in Q2 were up for grabs after these 60 minutes of testing.

Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) created a sensation during the first session by largely dominating the peloton while Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) found his place in the Top 10 in a good 6th position. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) only 15th, admitted to having gotten lost in bad settings and expected a lot from this second session. All the drivers set off on worn tires to get their bearings and judge the grip of the track erased by the Moto3 and Moto2.

A third of the way through a still very calm session, Augusto Fernandez, the sole GASGAS Tech3 representative this weekend, made a mistake in the first corner like Alex Rins (LCR Honda) this morning. The Spanish Rookie fortunately got up quickly to return to his box, although with pain in his shoulder. 20 minutes later he was ready to hit the trail again.

Quartararo took Francesco Bagnaia's wheel mid-session to calibrate his Yamaha on the Ducati reference. 8 tenths behind the World Champion at the end of the lap gave a good illustration of the gap between the two machines despite similar top speeds on the long straight of 1076 meters...

looks like @FabioQ20 has found himself a marker 👀

Hello, @PeccoBagnaia ????#ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/4JF6nED6Aj

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 31, 2023

The long runs work session continued with teams mainly testing hard tires on this very abrasive track. The degradation of the tires seems greater than expected and everyone already has the two races of the weekend in mind.

16 minutes from the end of the session, the duo Prima Pramac Ducati, Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco were the first to put on new tires to tease the time with the best time on the line for the “Martinator”. The session got underway and Pecco Bagnaia was the first rider to go under 1'39 per lap, beating the Aprilia benchmark, immediately ahead of Viñales and Bezzechi. Unable to find grip when accelerating, Fabio Quartararo began to get annoyed on the handlebars of a particularly reluctant Yamaha.

Fabio Quartararo fights against his Yamaha © MotoGP

The clock went under 10 minutes and the last run would prove decisive with 15 of the 18 drivers within the same second! The official Aprilias once again put everyone in agreement with this time the best time for Aleix Espargaro. Johann Zarco took 6th place to see the rest of the weekend with confidence.

No miracle unfortunately for Fabio Quartararo who failed to enter the Top 10 while his teammate Franco Morbidelli took 9th place.

Ranking of the 2nd practice session of the Argentine GP – MotoGP

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