MotoGP Spain FP1 LIVE: Suzuki celebrating, Ducati struggling…

It is a MotoGP world championship that is still as open as ever, which is setting its wheels, for its sixth round, on the Jerez de la Frontera circuit for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.

Symbol of this current lack of a real boss, his command is currently occupied by two drivers tied on points, fabio quartararo et alex rins, a duo which only has 3 points ahead of a Alex Espargaro still not sure of his future despite his victory in Argentina, and 8 on the former leader Enea Bastianini who stumbled in Portugal.

The contenders for the title do not stop there since, for example, Johann zarco, currently fifth, is only 18 units from the lead while there are a maximum of 400 left to score!

In short, race after race, everyone still concentrates on the present and this seems to offer good weather in Andalusia, thus avoiding drivers and technicians having to juggle settings and tires.

Thursday, Raul fernandez attempted to pass the medical exam after injuring his right hand during qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix. In vain.
 "They said tomorrow I have to do another one because during the first one they said 'no, you can't run like that, you're still unfit'. Tomorrow I'll do another check and if they say I'm more or less good, I'll try. For normal life, it's not really bad, but it's still painful when I want to do exercises like push-ups or something. It's a strange feeling because I've never [missed] a single race and now I might miss two. »
He tried the exercise again this morning and… same verdict.

Conversely, Lorenzo Savadori is certain to ride for his second wild card of the year for Aprilia, after the one in Portugal last week.
Another wild card, Stefan Bradl, under HRC colors.

While waiting to discover more, as the 25 drivers prepare for this first 45-minute free practice session, under an absolutely clear Andalusian sky accompanied by temperatures of 16° in the air and 21° on the ground, but a track still showing a few small patches of nighttime humidity, let's take advantage of these few live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Here are the past references to keep in mind:

MotoGP ™	2021	2022
FP1	1'38.013 Brad Binder (see here)	1'38.194 Joan Mir (See here)
FP2	1'37.209 Francesco Bagnaia (see here)
FP3	1'36.985 Takaaki Nakagami (see here)
FP4	1'37.341 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Q1	1'36.916 Franco Morbidelli (see here)
Q2	1'36.755 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Warm Up	1'37.688 Johann Zarco (see here)
Course	Miller, Bagnaia, Morbidelli (see here)
All time lap record	1'36.584 Maverick Viñales (2020)

When the red lights go out...Franco Morbidelli continues the tradition by starting first, but it is not fabio quartararo who takes the track last, leaving this role to Francesco Bagnaia who remains for the moment in his box, without his helmet on his head.

In terms of tires, the medium is favored by drivers, both at the rear and at the front.

At the end of the first flying round, Fabio Quartararo registered 1'41.849 ahead Alex Rins, Jack Miller et Marc Marquez, then 1'40.013 on the next pass in front Marc Márquez: a taste of the weekend?

Another round and this time The Devil is in 1'39.439 ahead Enea Bastianini et Marc Marquez. The Frenchman said that a good qualification would be essential for this weekend and, obviously, he directly intends to strike a big blow! He also lowers the provisional reference to 1'39.226 on the next pass, still ahead Marc Márquez.

After 10 minutes, alone fabio quartararo et Marc Márquez are still fighting for command, and trading it back and forth, but for the moment it's fabio quartararo who took the lead in 1'38.780 before falling at turn #13 without seriousness, even though his bike hit his right leg or groin in this low-speed accident.

Meanwhile, Alex Espargaro comes between the two strong men at the start of the weekend and, at the end of the first quarter of an hour, the hierarchy appears as follows: Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Marc Márquez, Jack Miller, Takaaki Nakagami, Enea Bastianini, Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir, Maverick Vinales, Franco Morbidelli, Jorge Martin, Alex Rins, Alex Márquez, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, Andrea Dovizioso, Francesco Bagnaia , Lorenzo Savadori, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Johann Zarco, Marco Bezzecchi, Remy Gardner, Stefan Bradl, Luca Marini and Darryn Binder.

A little before mid-session, Joan mir hoists his Suzuki into third position while most of the riders return after this first run.

The fall of fabio quartararo must have hurt him because he left his box to go to his office located in the truck at the back of the Yamaha box. After a few minutes, the Frenchman comes back down, smiling: everything is fine with his lower abdomen! 🙂

The Devil see at this moment Pol Espargaro achieve the best provisional time in 1'38.521 and therefore finds himself surrounded by the two official Hondas on the clock, when he returns to the track...

12 minutes from the checkered flag, Joan mir produced his effort after a first push which had positioned him in second place. The Suzuki rider takes the lead in 1'38.422 whileAlex Espargaro is positioned third.

Takaaki Nakagami rises to second position and seems able to continue improving. Indeed, the Japanese driver of the LCR team then lights the first three sectors in red before losing time in the fourth.

Seven minutes from the end of the session, the first four drivers, Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo, Takaaki Nakagami and Pol Espargaro, are in less than a tenth of a second! Alex Espargaro joins this very exclusive club by placing its Aprilia in second position.

There is one minute left when Alex Marquez takes command in 1'38.368, but Joan mir replies in 1'38.194. In extremis, alex rins completes the Suzuki's good start to the weekend by positioning themselves second.

Finally, Joan Mir, Alex Rins, Alex Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo, Takaaki Nakagami, Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller are currently pre-qualified for Q2.

See you at 14:10 p.m. for FP2!

Results of FP1 of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com