Catalan GP – FP1: Álex Márquez far ahead on home soil

Álex Márquez sets the pace during FP1 of the Catalan Grand Prix, on the circuit where he secured his second victory in MotoGP last year. Setting the fastest time of the session in 1:39.950, the local rider immediately imposed a pace that none of his rivals could follow, neither at Ducati nor at Aprilia.

It wasn't the Gresini rider who stood out at the start of the session. From the moment the pit lane opened, under cloudy skies in Barcelona and despite the still-cool temperatures, Jorge Martín made some solid initial attempts. Very active from the opening minutes, the Spaniard strung together a series of fast laps and quickly distinguished himself by dragging his shoulder in Turn 5, a move that has become his trademark at the Barcelona circuit when conditions allow.

The French Grand Prix winner, however, had his momentum halted. After crashing in the final section of the circuit at the halfway point, he didn't get back on his RS-GP and complained of pain in his left forearm. He was nevertheless able to return to the track to perform practice starts after FP1. He ultimately finished the session in second place, three-tenths of a second behind Alex Márquez. Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top three, four-tenths of a second back.

The two factory KTMs of Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder each experienced mishaps at Turn 2, where similar crashes saw them end up in the gravel. The incident had no consequences for #37, who finished FP1 with the 4th fastest time, just behind Fabio Di Giannantonio.

On the French side, Johann Zarco secured the 10th fastest time in the session, ahead of his teammate Diogo Moreira, as the best Honda. He was nevertheless half a second off the pace. Meanwhile fabio quartararo finished 14th in the session, well ahead of the Yamahas of Augusto Fernandez, Álex Rins and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, at the back of the field, but still three tenths behind Jack Miller who recorded a fine 8th place.

ALSO READ > The MotoGP Catalan GP schedule

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