MotoGP Aragon Practice LIVE: Marc Marquez explosive, Johann Zarco the hero!

For the 12th round of a 2024 season that has 20, the Championship In Action MotoGP is heading to Motorland Aragon for the Aragon Grand Prix, after skipping it last year. 

More than just an Excel table, our graph allows you to immediately see the highlights of the first part of the season, in particular the successive changes of leaders made during the last three Grands Prix, in Germany, Silverstone and Austria.

At this game, George Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and Francis Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) are not letting go of each other, and today the reigning champion only leads by 5 points, which is to say nothing.

For the 3rd step of the final podium, but at a distance, a duel still opposes Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) at Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team), but the latter took the upper hand thanks to his perfect English weekend, then the 22 points he brought back from Austria against 13 for the Spaniard.
The two men themselves are detached in front of what was a trio but is now an increasingly compact group of six, made up of Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Peter Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3), Alex Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), Fabio DiGiannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP).

12 points scored at the Red Bull Ring allow Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) and Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing) to take a little air on the group of fabio quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team), while the tail end of the pack mainly consists of the four Hondas, Johann zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) leading by one point this race in the race…

To write the twelfth chapter of this 2024 MotoGP season, the third circuit (out of five) in the anti-clockwise direction of the MotoGP season calendar (the two previous ones being Austin and the Sachsenring), it will be necessary to cover the 11-meter track 5078 times during Saturday's Sprint and complete 23 laps on Sunday, on a track with asphalt completely resurfaced last spring, plunging Michelin into expectation and forcing it to provide an additional type of rear tire, as Pirelli in the lower categories. Brembo is not concerned about this, even though the brake manufacturer attributes the Motorland Aragon a difficulty rating of 4 on a scale of 6.

Among the current full-time pilots, Marc Marquez 6 (5 x MotoGP™, 1 x Moto2™), Franco Morbidelli 2 (1 x MotoGP™, 1 x Moto2™) and alex rins 2 (1 x MotoGP™, 1 x Moto3™) have already experienced the joy of the top step of the podium in the premier class, while in the 14 editions already contested, Honda has reigned supreme by claiming half of the victories, while Yamaha and Ducati have obtained 3 (including the last 2) and Suzuki 1. 

The records are set in 1'46.069 (Francesco Bagnaia) since 2022, and 354,1 km/h for the speed (Enea Bastianini) still in 2022!

 

As for the weather forecast, this 15th edition looks set to be good, although it is not safe from a small, occasional thunderstorm...

This morning during FP1, Marc Marquez completely dominated the session then Francis Bagnaia seemed to be struggling to find the right settings. We know the recoveries that the reigning world champion is capable of, and we can't wait to see if that will be the case again this afternoon...

While waiting to discover more, as the 22 drivers prepare for this 60-minute Practice, under a sunny sky and with temperatures of 29° in the air and 44° on the ground, let's enjoy these few moments of live coverage thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far.

MotoGP™ Spain, Aragon	2022	2024
FP1	1'48.686 Aleix Espargaro FP1 (See here) - 1'47.402 Jorge Martin FP2 (See here)	1'48.289 Marc Marquez (See here)
Practice	1'46.992 Jack Miller FP3 (See here)	1'45.801 Marc Marquez (See here)
FP2	1'47.430 Miguel Oliveira FP4 (See here)	(See here)
Q1	1'46.569 Aleix Espargaro (See here)	(See here)
Q2	1'46.069 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	(See here)
Sprint	XXXXXX	(See here)
Warm Up	1'47.689 Takaaki Nakagami (See here)	(See here)
Course	Bastianini, Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaró (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	1'46.069 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	1'45.801 Marc Marquez (See here)

When the red lights go out... Marc Márquez resumes his habit of starting first on the track, while in box number 20 we remain faithful to the opposite strategy.

https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1829504899719073816

Most riders chose to put a medium in the front and a soft in the rear.

Alex Marquez immediately experiences a technical problem…

At the end of the first flying round, it is Pedro Acosta who proved to be the quickest to get into the rhythm, posting 1'48.264 ahead Maverick Vinales, Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli, Francesco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco.

In the next passage, Marc Márquez takes the lead in 1'48.234, already better than the best time of the morning, then Maverick Vinales registered 1'48.199.

Marc Márquez takes back the lead in 1'47.272, this time ahead of Jack Miller, Pedro Acosta, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi.

Francis Bagnaia et Alex Espargaro reassure their fans by delivering a much better rhythm than this morning…

At the end of the first quarter of an hour, Marc Márquez precede Brad Binder, Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi, Maverick Vinales, Pedro Acosta, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Martin, Fabio Quartararo, Augusto Fernandez, Francesco Bagnaia, Raul Fernandez, Johann Zarco, Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli, Luca Marini, Takaaki Nakagami, Joan Mir, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Marquez who has still not recorded any time.

Finally, number 73 sets off and places himself in 10th position, not without having lit up the first sector in red.

During the second run, most of the riders try out the different types of tires and work on race pace, which produces little improvement in the first part of the table, at least until Marc Marquez lights up the first three sectors in red before improving to 1'46.954 just before the halfway point!

At this moment, the 10 prequalified are named Marc Marquez, Brad Binder, Jack Miller, Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi, Maverick Vinales, Pedro Acosta, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Aleix Espargaro and Raul Fernandez.

fabio quartararo and Augusto Fernandez then fall, the first in turn 5, the second in the last turn at high speed but without serious consequences.

20 minutes before the checkered flag, Francesco Bagnaia enters the top 10 in fourth position, then Johann zarco takes second place thanks to new tires, medium front / soft rear!

With a quarter of an hour to go, the top 10 is made up of: Marc Marquez, Johann Zarco, Brad Binder, Jack Miller, Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi, Maverick Vinales, Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Everyone stops and then resumes the track with a soft rear tire and a medium front tire, except Fabio Di Giannantonio and Miguel Oliveira who keep a soft tire at the front.

The festival begins with the improvements of Pedro Acosta, Maverick Vinales and Francesco Bagnaia, all now in the top 5. Red sectors are lighting up everywhere…

Alex Espargaro then rises to second position, then George Martin snatches the lead in 1'46.666!

Marc Márquez did not let himself be counted and replied in 1'46.384, less than 4/10 of the absolute circuit record!

Seven minutes from the checkered flag, Enea Bastianini moves up to 4th and the drivers return to their pits as they benefit from additional tires.

When they come out to do their last two or three laps, the top 10 is made up of Marc Márquez, Jorge Martin, Aleix Espargaro, Énéa Bastianini, Pedro Acosta, Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Márquez, Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller and Johann Zarco.

Two minutes before the end of the session, Alex Espargaro breaks the absolute circuit record by achieving 1'46.073, but once again Marc Márquez does not hear it that way and displays 1'45.801!

Behind, we are not giving up and we are improving, including on the side of Johann zarco who manages to stay in the top 10, which is a first for Honda this season!

Jack Miller a minor crash in turn 16, which wiped out a few times, and that was that.

MotoGP 2024 Aragon Grand Prix Practice Rankings at Motorland Aragon:

MotoGP Aragon Practice

Classification credit: MotoGP.com

MotoGP Aragon Practice

MotoGP Aragon Practice

MotoGP Aragon Practice