Moto3 Catalonia FP1: Izan Guevara gets the ball rolling

During the Italian Grand Prix, the last one before this meeting in Catalonia, Sergio Garcia won his seventh victory in Moto3, following the penalty of his teammate Izan Guevera for having exceeded the limits of the track in the last round. It's also his third victory of the season so far with Argentina and Portugal, which is already as many as last year. With his seventh victory, Garcia is now tied with Brad Binder and Dennis Foggia for eighth position on the list of most successful Moto3 riders.

The victory of Garcia at Mugello is the 90th for Spain in Moto3, which is ahead of Italy with 46 victories in the category. This is the seventh victory for GASGAS in Moto3, which moves to third place in the list of the most successful manufacturers in Moto3 behind Honda (81 victories) and KTM (80).

Guevara finished second in the Italian Grand Prix for his fifth Moto3 podium. This is the first time he has reached the podium in three successive Moto3 races. At Mugello, Tatsuki suzuki finished third for his fifth podium in Moto3 and his first podium since his third place at the San Marino Grand Prix in 2020. Andrea Migno, starting from 16th place in Italy, finished fourth, his best result since his third place at the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this season.

The 10 Moto3 races contested at the Catalunya circuit were won by 10 riders: Maverick Viñales, Luis Salom, Alex Marquez, Danny Kent, Jorge Navarro, Joan Mir, Enea Bastianini, Marcos Ramirez, Darryn Binder, Sergio Garcia. Only three of them have been won by machines not powered by Honda: Luis Salom (2013) and Darryn Binder (2020), both KTM, and Sergio Garcia (2021), on a GASGAS. Four have won from pole: Maverick Viñales (2012), Luis Salom (2013), Alex Marquez (2014), Enea Bastianini (2018)

The presentations made, let's now get to the heart of the matter of this Catalan Grand Prix with this FP1 which opens hostilities. What will she have in store for us? Before knowing it, here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far.

Catalunya-Barcelona Moto3™	2021	2022
FP1	1'48.467 Sergio Garcia	1'48.675 Izan Guevara
FP2	1'47.950 Gabriel Rodrigo
FP3	1'47.761 Stefano Nepa
Q1	1'48.529 John McPhee
Q2	1'47.597 Gabriel Rodrigo
Warm Up	1'48.839 John McPhee
Course	Garcia, Alcoba, Öncü
All time lap record	1'47.597 Gabriel Rodrigo 2021

As expected, the weather is good above the Montmèlo site for the 40 minutes of exercise planned for the protagonists.

Carlos Tatay fall at turn 5 at the start of a session initially led by Guevara followed by Foggia. The reference is 1'49.870.

Suzuki, Masia et holgado close the provisional top 5. The championship leader Garcia is sixth halfway through the session. The last quarter of an hour has already begun and Öncü moves into second place.

The last five minutes have begun and Foggia takes control in 1'48.962. He precedes his teammate Suzuki. The two Leopard drivers drive together, with some success.

More Guevara slams a 1'48.675 in sight of the checkered flag... Öncü crash at turn 1. He was fifth.

Under the checkered flag, Guevara remains in control with this time. Foggia, Masia, Suzuki et holgado close the top 5. Migno leads the rest of the pack. Garcia is seventh. Lorenzo Fellon is 13th.

Result of FP1 of the Moto3 Catalan Grand Prix on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit:

Credit ranking: MotoGP.com