MotoGP Argentina FP1: Pedrosa plays the samba, Crutchlow the tango!

The weather and the resurfacing of the Termas de Río Hondo circuit are the two big question marks before the action begins in Argentina.

Regarding the first topic, rain is forecast for today and Saturday, with changing conditions for Sunday's race. And after a beautiful start to the day, the sky is gradually getting darker with temperatures of 22° in the air and 28° on the track.

As for the grip of the new surface, if the Moto3s proved to be 6 tenths slower than in 2017, this was not the case for the Moto2s, with an improvement of 5/10 compared to last year: difficult to say. get the slightest idea of ​​what will happen during this first Argentine MotoGP session, even if we can assume that the Moto3 mainly cleaned the track!

 

#ArgentinaGP MotoGP	2017	2018
FP1	1'40.356 Maverick Vinales	1'40.303 Dani Pedrosa
FP2	1'39.477 Maverick Vinales
FP3	1'39.772 Cal Crutchlow
FP4	1'50.042 Marc Marquez
Qualification 1	1'49.235 Dani Pedrosa
Qualification 2	1'47.512 Marc Marquez
Warm Up	1'39.620 Maverick Vinales
Course	Vinales, Rossi, Crutchlow
All time lap record	1'37.683 Marc Marquez 2014

 

When the red lights go out, and as is often the case, it's Jorge Lorenzo who is quickest to hit the trail.

Most riders chose a soft rear tire, Dani Pedrosa being the only one to have taken a hard one. At the front, we find everything but alone Marquez, Crutchlow and Redding chose the hard option.

In its launching round, Danilo Petrucci almost losing his balance on his Ducati at turn number 5. Immediately afterwards, he received a message from his box: “Mapping 1”.

The first round launched sees Marc Márquez prove to be the fastest in front Valentino Rossi.

After 5 rounds, Cal Crutchlow takes command in 1'41.542, compared to the best time of last year's FP1 achieved by Maverick Vinales en 1'40.356.

Marc Marquez also almost fell at turn number 13 while the surprise came from Hafizh Syahrin, 2nd in the session after 10 minutes of testing.

At the end of a first run longer than usual, the provisional hierarchy is made up of Jack Miller, Cal Crutchlow, Hafizh Syahrin, Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Vinales, Danilo Petrucci, Alex Rins et Dani Pedrosa. John Zarco is then in 13th position at 1,4 seconds.

Andrea Iannone accelerates to finish second less than 4/100 behind Jack Miller just before his first pit stop.

When the second run resumes Marc Márquez et Valentino Rossi are brought to the top.

Unusually, Marc Márquez now runs with two soft tires and takes the opportunity to break the 1'41 mark in 1'40.951.

At Ducati, Danilo Petrucci drops the South American dirt at turn number 13, losing the front of his GP18 without seriousness.

11 minutes from the checkered flag, Andrea Iannone enjoy the wake of Cal Crutchlow to take command in 1'40.422.

Before the final rush, the hierarchy is therefore as follows: Andrea Iannone, Cal Crutchlow, Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Jack Miller, Maverick Vinales, Andrea Dovizioso, Hafizh Syahrin, Takaaki Nakagami and Jorge Lorenzo. Dani Pedrosa is 11th, Danilo Petrucci 12th, John Zarco 14e.

The sky is clearing again but possible rain this afternoon encourages the drivers to attack during the last run.

It is therefore in the last 5 minutes that we witness the attacks of Johann zarco which is first of all 5th, but above allAndrea Dovizioso who jumped from 9th place to take 4th position.

But behind Andrea Iannone, the ranking continues to change and 2 minutes from the checkered flag, we find Johann zarco 2th in front Marquez, Rossi, Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Pedrosa, Petrucci Syahrin and Miller.

Marc Marquez lack of impact Maverick Vinales.

In the last minute, there are still 11 of them lighting the partials in red and, in extremis, Dani Pedrosa slams a 1'40.303. A time extremely close to the best time of FP1 2017 and a great response to those who are eyeing its place...

Conversely, the big loser of the session is called Maverick Vinales, 13th at 0,9 seconds.