Catalan Grand Prix Barcelona MotoGP FP1: Marquez, Quartararo… and 16 others!

Due to its geographical location, being located slightly north of Barcelona, ​​the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is hosting this weekend the 7th round of the MotoGP world championship which, for a significant number of riders, truly represents their Grand Prix at residence.

We obviously think of Marc Márquez, currently leading in the title race, to the brothers Asparagus born in Granollers, a few stone's throw from the circuit, but also a Maverick Vinales originally from the far northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, or even all pilots who reside in Andorra.

This will undoubtedly provide additional motivation and pressure, the consequences of which will be interesting to see on the Catalan track.

Faced with these de facto or adopted premises, we already know that the last winner of a Grand Prix will not attempt to repeat his feat but will be there only to help his teammate in 2nd place in the championship.

Note also the particular presence of two wild cards Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) and Bradley Smith (Aprilia).

For this first MotoGP session of the weekend, the weather seems conducive to performance, with fairly cloudy skies and temperatures of 22° in the air and 25° on the ground.

Here are the references available before this 45-minute session:

Barcelona MotoGP™	2018	2019
FP1	1'39.456 Valentino Rossi	1'40.692 Marc Marquez
FP2	1'38.930 Jorge Lorenzo
FP3	1'38.923 Andrea Dovizioso
FP4	1'39.708 Andrea Iannone
QP1	1'39.217 Marc Marquez
QP2	1'38.680 Jorge Lorenzo
Warm Up	1'39.571 Andrea Dovizioso
Course	Lorenzo, Marquez, Rossi
All time lap record	1'38.680 Jorge Lorenzo 2018

As very often, Jorge Lorenzo is the first to take the track at the opening, with a new “Bad Boy” helmet decoration including skulls…

The Majorcan rider's second motorcycle is equipped with a tank cover with appendages intended to allow him to hold his mount securely with his thighs.

With the exception of Marc Márquez (which also sports a new decoration) who chose a medium/medium combination, all the drivers opted for a soft tire at the front and medium at the rear.

At the end of the first round, Maverick Vinales establishes the first provisional reference before Johann zarco, in 1'42.701.

In the following passages, Marc Márquez takes his Honda to the lead, in 1'41.753 then 1'41.221 ahead of the two Petronas drivers, Franco Morbidelli et Fabio Quartararo.

In his 4nd flying lap, Franco Morbidelli however seizes the leadership in 1'41.160 before Marc Marquez takes back his property in 1'40.915.

At the end of the first run, Marc Márquez ahead of 2/10 Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins, Aleix Espargaro while Jack Miller, Fabio Quartararo, Cal Crutchlow and Maverick Vinales are 1/2 second ahead Francesco Bagnaia, Danilo Petrucci, Pol Espargaro and Valentino Rossi.

The curiosity of the moment is the place ofAndrea Dovizioso, only 22th.

The Ducati official, however, restored the situation at the start of the 2nd run by placing himself 1/10 behind Marc Márquez.

Around mid-session, Maverick Vinales improves Marc Márquez's time by 43/1000 while Fabio Quartararo climbs to 6th position. We recall that the French pilot has just had surgery for compartment syndrome.

Johann zarco, currently in 15th position at only 7/10, has the full carbon swingarm on his KTM.

The hierarchy at the end of the 2nd run is made up of Maverick Vinales, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Jack Miller, Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli, Takaaki Nakagami, Aleix Espargaro and Valentino Rossi, all these drivers in just 4/10 of a second!

In this regard, there are 19 of them appearing in the same second.

5 minutes from the end of the session, Marc Márquez lights all sectors red and regains leadership in 1'40.833 thanks to a soft/soft tire combination.

5 minutes from the end of the session, Marc Márquez lights all sectors red and regains leadership in 1'40.833.

In the last seconds, fabio quartararo first takes 3rd position before finishing 2nd, behind a Marc Márquez which concludes with a 1'40.692.

In the end, it was indeed an extremely close session, with 18 drivers in the same second, the 18th being Danilo Petrucci, the latest winner…

FP1 standings for the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com