Czech Republic Grand Prix Brno MotoGP FP1: Dovizioso, Márquez and Viñales ahead of Oliveira and Guintoli!

Even if everyone suspects that with 58 points ahead Marc Márquez will not be on the street, very smart is he who knows today who will make us vibrate during this 2nd part of the 2019 MotoGP season, even if Fabio Quartararo showed himself valiant in this area…

After the summer break, the return to school takes place under a gray sky on the attractive but bumpy Brno circuit, except for Jorge Lorenzo who is focusing on a return to Silverstone.

It is temporarily replaced by Stefan bradl within the Repsol Honda team while, at Suzuki, Sylvain Guintoli will make his second wildcard of the year in Moravia, after that of Barcelona: after a private test in Motegi and a superb performance during the first hour of the Suzuka 2 Hours, the French driver is currently spending more time on his butt a motorbike only on his sofa…

Last year, Brno was the occasion for a great duel between the 2 official Ducatis and the Honda of Marc Marquez, just in front of the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.

What will happen this year when we fear rain tomorrow? This first MotoGP session of the weekend which will take place under gloomy skies and temperatures of 22 degrees in the air and 26 degrees on the ground, excellent conditions, will provide a first answer in 45 minutes.

Here are the available references:

Brno MotoGP™	2018	2019
FP1	1'56.647 Johann Zarco (See here)	1'56.919 Andrea Dovizioso
FP2	1'55.976 Dani Pedrosa (See here)
FP3	1'55.175 Valentino Rossi (See here)
FP4	1'56.149 Marc Márquez (See here)
Q1	1'55.538 Maverick Viñales (See here)
Q2	1'54.689 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)
warm up	1'56.177 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)
Course	Dovizioso, Lorenzo, Marquez (See here)
All time lap record	1'54.596 Marc Márquez (2016)

Very motivated since his last victory at Assen, Maverick Vinales sets off first at the opening of the track.

All the drivers chose the medium rear tire while, for the front, we hesitated between medium and soft.

At the end of the first flying round, it is Valentino Rossi who leads the hierarchy in 1'58.396 ahead Jack Miller which replaces this role in the following passage in 1'57.385.

After 10 minutes, Marc Márquez et Andrea Dovizioso pick up the pace and the Honda driver sets a 1'56.948.

At the end of the first run, the placement presents Marc Marquez 4 tenths ahead Jack Miller, Andrea Dovizioso, Maverick Viñales, Valentino Rossi, Franco Morbidelli, Danilo Petrucci, Aleix Espargaró, Pol Espargaró et Alex Rins.

Fabio Quartararo, embarrassed by Andrea Iannone, is then 13th at 1,5 seconds, John Zarco 19th at 2 seconds.

On resumption, Joan mir then 17th grabs two places while Takaaki Nakagami temporarily enters the last place in the top 10.

Pol Espargaro then enjoy the wake of Valentino Rossi to climb to 6th position before Alex Rins rises to 4rd position.

Frank Morbidelli, without any help, positions himself 5th, just behind Maverick Vinnales.

Before the last run where we can think that some will change to a new soft tire given the risk of rain tomorrow, the classification presents the following appearance: Marc Marquez still 4/10 ahead Jack Miller, Andrea Dovizioso, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Álex Rins, Valentino Rossi, Pol Espargaró, Danilo Petrucci et Cal Crutchlow.

Fabio Quartararo is still 13th, Sylvain Guintoli 20th, Stefan Bradl 21th and Johann zarco 22nd while Pecco Bagnaia experiences the first (non-serious) fall of the weekend in MotoGP.

For the final rush, Maverick Vinales uses a hard rear tire while alone Tito Rabat, Karel Abraham et Sylvain Guintoli opted for a soft one.

Thus equipped, the French driver jumped to 2nd place before Maverick Vinales, with the opposite solution, does not delight him.

It is then the turn of Miguel Oliveira, also with a soft rear tire, to take 3rd position! We could therefore estimate that this soft envelope roughly saves a second and a half, except that Hafizh Syahrin joins the Top 10 in medium!

Andrea Dovizioso then changed to a new medium tire and positioned himself in 3rd place before taking command in 1'56.919.

Ranking Czech Republic Grand Prix in Brno FP1:

Credit classification and photos: MotoGP.com