MotoGP Aragon FP2 LIVE: Jorge Martin, Fabio Quartararo, Johann Zarco and Enea Bastianini contain Francesco Bagnaia

The MotoGP World Championship arrives at the Motorland Aragon circuit, in Spain, for the 15th meeting of a season which includes 20. It is marked by the meteoric rise of Francis Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) which has just scored the maximum 100 points in the last four events before facing the leader and defending champion in Alcaniz fabio quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who is only 30 points ahead of the Italian. And, on paper, this trend could well continue since on the one hand the Ducati rider won in Aragon last year and on the other hand this circuit is one of the least appreciated in the championship by El Diablo. If this were not enough to show the dangerousness of the Borgo Panigale spearhead, another statistic is quite evocative: Francis Bagnaia has won 10 of the last 20 Grands Prix!

We can note that this war declared between the two men who had already fought for the championship last year has gone up a notch since then, since fabio quartararo won the title with 234 points last season and already has 211 with six events remaining in the season…

Dance what contexts, Alex Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), although only 3 points behind Francis Bagnaia, seems a little behind recently but could take advantage of this Grand Prix in the Iberian Peninsula to bounce back to the forefront.

Anyway, fabio quartararo will fly to Japan at the top of the championship regardless of its lead, large or small, in a news also marked by the return of the child prodigy Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), absent since the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. Despite missing six races, the number 93 is still the best Honda rider classified in the championship and his impatience to shine again is beyond doubt, despite his reasonable and cautious statements made at the end of the official MotoGP test in Misano a year ago barely a week...
We only hope that the Spanish champion does what he says, that is to say, takes the time not to torture his body!

Another comeback during this Aragon Grand Prix, Joan mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) will find its Suzuki GSX–RR driven by kazuki watanabe in Misano, following his highside in Austria. Unfortunately, this seems a return without much challenge since the announcement of the withdrawal from competition at the end of the season by the management of Hamamatsu, even if the Suzuki rider was on the podium here last year.

We will also note the return of Cal Crutchlow to replace Andrea Dovizioso retired...

In terms of weather, no rain is expected this weekend near Alcaniz and conditions should be almost optimal despite the region still being a little windy...

This morning, in a particularly studious session, Alex Espargaro achieved the best time in 1'48.686 before falling, ahead Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Rins, Takaaki Nakagami, Johann Zarco, Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira, Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli et Luca marini, the last round of Brad Binder having finally been cancelled. But following an overtaking prohibited during the start tests, the question remains as to a possible penalty for the Aprilia driver during the race...

Furthermore, Augusto Fernandez has just been made official in Hervé Poncharal's team for 2023, which will take the name of GASGAS Factory Racing for the occasion.

While waiting to discover more, as the 24 drivers prepare for this second 45-minute free practice session in the dry, with temperatures of 26° in the air and 41° on the ground, let's take advantage of these some live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Here are the past references:

Aragon MotoGP™	2021	2022
FP1	1'48.048 Marc Marquez (See here)	1'48.686 Aleix Espargaro (See here)
FP2	1'47.613 Jack Miller (See here)	1'47.402 Jorge Martin (See here)
FP3	1'46.926 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	(See here)
FP4	1'48.116 Marc Marquez (See here)	(See here)
Q1	1'47.293 Johann Zarco (See here)	(See here)
Q2	1'46.322 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	(See here)
Warm up	1'48.054 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	(See here)
Course	Pecco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, Joan Mir (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	1'46.322 Francesco Bagnaia (2021)

When the red lights go out... Franco Morbidelli sets off as usual first on the track, fabio quartararo the last.

In terms of tires, the mediums are still required at the rear but the hard ones have replaced the soft ones at the front.

Like this morning, George Martin registered the first difference, this time in 1'49.147 but was immediately overtaken by Johann zarco then by Fabio DiGiannantonio in 1'48.822 after the first flying lap: the track seems much faster than this morning!

In the next passage, Francesco Bagnaia, Luca Marini and Marc Marquez crossed the 1'48 mark, the Ducati official registering 1'47.853.

Maverick Vinales then improved to 1'47.840 but his time was canceled for having crossed the limits of the track.

fabio quartararo is then positioned in second place, 20/1000 behind Francesco Bagnaia.

Alex Espargaro experienced his second fall of the day, this time at turn #14, but the Catalan was fortunately not injured.

At the end of the first quarter of an hour, Maverick Vinales jumped from ninth to provisional pole position, in 1'47.842.

At the end of the first run, this morning's hierarchy has completely evolved, presenting Maverick Vinales before Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Luca Marini, Aleix Espargaro, Marc Márquez, Takaaki Nakagami, Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira, Jorge Martin, Alex Rins, Johann Zarco, Jack Miller, Alex Márquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Brad Binder, Raul Fernandez, Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir, Franco Morbidelli, Darryn Binder, Marco Bezzecchi, Cal Crutchlow and Remy Gardner.

Marc Márquez leaves with the famous Kalex swingarm. On this subject, we will soon reveal another quite spectacular swingarm tested by Honda during the test in Misano, this one having gone completely unnoticed...

The session then had a moment of calm until around ten minutes before the checkered flag, when Takaaki Nakagami et Alex Marquez leave first with a soft rear tire…

Logically, Takaaki Nakagami produces the first big improvement in the final rush by going from seventh to fifth position, but it is Alex Rins which changes the head of the ranking by provisionally winning 1'47.665 ahead Francis Bagnaia who only remained on pole for a few seconds.

George Martin then imposes a 1'47.402 in front Fabio Quartararo.

Marc Márquez, then 11th, moved up to sixth position despite a little heat in the last sector, just before Johann zarco does not get the third time.

Jorge Martin, Fabio Quartararo, Johann Zarco, Enea Bastianini, Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Rins, Maverick Vinales, Marc Marquez, Jack Miller and Luca Marini are therefore currently pre-qualified for Q2.

See you this evening for the debriefing and tomorrow at 9:55 a.m. for an FP3 which promises to be very open…

MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix FP2 results:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com