MotoGP
Published on October 16, 2020 • 14:30 by Marc Sériau

MotoGP LIVE Aragón-1 FP2: Another strong showing from the Yamahas!

The situation in the championship having barely changed after the French round at Le Mans, the two weekends in Aragón could well be a turning point, on a track turning counter-clockwise for the first time this season.

But more than this simple particularity, the weather conditions risk constantly reshuffling the cards throughout the weekend.

Despite beautiful sunshine which should last until Sunday, a freezing wind to dehorn the oxen was present in recent days. There official weather forecast tells us that it is supposed to diminish from Saturday.

Even more important, the range of temperatures will make the development of MotoGP very difficult, because between 2° in the morning and 21° in the afternoon, adjusting the machines risks proving to be a headache for the technicians, even if to cope with this drivers now have an additional soft front tire at each Grand Prix (6 instead of 5 for the weekend) until the end of the season, in return for one less hard front tire.

Two drivers will be absent from the starting grid, Sunday at 14 p.m. Marc Marquez obviously, who has already won six races there (five in MotoGP and one in Moto2) since 2010, the year Motorland Aragon entered the world championship, and Valentino Rossi due to Covid-19.

While the latter has never won there, the latest winner is precisely Marc Márquez, what's more from pole position. Honda's true preserve, the track located 230 kilometers southwest of Barcelona has only granted three victories to the Tokyo firm's opponents, in 2010 with Casey Stoner and Ducati, as well as in 2014 and 2015 with Jorge Lorenzo and Yamaha.

Speaking of Yamaha, the six engineers temporarily isolated in Andorra will be back in the paddock this evening, after having all tested negative…

Last unfortunate anecdote, the latest winner, Danilo Petrucci, was stung by a hornet…

This morning, during a session delayed by 30 minutes due to cold, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo, Álex Márquez, Takaaki Nakagami, Joan Mir, Pol Espargaró, Cal Crutchlow, Alex Rins and Aleix I will espargaro have very provisionally pre-qualified for Q2, but this hierarchy is very likely to be upset thanks to much higher temperatures of 15 degrees in the air and 21 degrees on the track despite a wind of 13 km/h.

With 2° expected tomorrow morning in Aragón, there is no question of missing this 2-minute FP45 if we want to avoid Q1!

Now for the live:

Watch out for the new schedules tomorrow morning!

Aragon-1 MotoGP™

 2019

2020
FP1

1'46.869 Marc Márquez (See here)

  1'49.866 Maverick Viñales (See here)
FP2

1'48.014 Maverick Viñales (See here)

  1'47.771 Maverick Viñales (See here)
FP3

1'55.934 Alex Rins (See here)
FP4

1'48.246 Marc Marquez (See here)
Q1

1'48.292 Franco Morbidelli (See here)
Q2

1'47.009 Marc Márquez (See here)
Warm up

1'59.111 Maverick Viñales (See here)
Course

Marquez, Dovizioso, Miller (See here)
All time lap record

1'46.635 Marc Márquez (2015)

When the red lights go out... We find tradition with Franco Morbidelli who sets off first on the track while his teammate works to warm up the brakes.

Like this morning, almost all of the drivers chose a soft front/medium rear tire configuration, with the exception this time ofAlex Marquez and Bradley Smith which also use a soft tire at the rear.

From the first lap, we found the three Yamahas in the lead, like this morning, this time with Maverick Vinales in 1'50.688 ahead Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo.

On the next pass, this morning's best time (1'49.866) was already beaten by the three M1s, the Catalan achieving 1'49.704.

On the next pass, the Yamaha official recorded 1'49.215 but was then surpassed by Franco Morbidelli which lowers the reference to 1'49.162 then 1'48.992. Fabio Quartararo don't pretend either...

After this first breathless salvo, we see that behind the three Yamahas are Alex Marquez, definitely in a good spiral, then Andrea Dovizioso and Johann Zarco, a sign that the Ducati appreciate these temperatures much more than the cold of the early morning…

Five minutes before mid-session, Brad Binder makes the mistake in the same place as Johann zarco this morning.

Joan mir then places his Suzuki in fifth position and, at a time when almost everyone has returned to their box after this first run, the hierarchy is made up of Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales, Álex Márquez, Joan Mir, Andrea Dovizioso, Johann Zarco, Álex Rins, Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaró, Francesco Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami, Miguel Oliveira, Iker Lecuona, Danilo Petrucci, Tito Rabat, Cal Crutchlow , Stefan Bradl, Brad Binder, Aleix Espargaro and Jack Miller.

351,8 km/h for the V4 of Borgo Panigale! New record !

On resumption, Joan mir used a soft rear tire and took the lead in 1'48.891 then 1'48.688.

His teammate then also entered the top 5 in the same conditions, seeming to indicate that we will have to reckon with the GSX-RRs on Sunday…

More bad news for Iwata's troops, Takaaki Nakagami shows that the Honda will also be there, given the second position provisionally occupied by its RC213V!

Stefan bradl minor fall at turn 12 while Johann zarco climbs back to seventh position before returning to his box to prepare for the final rush.

12 minutes from the checkered flag, Fabio Quartararo leaves with a soft rear tire to try to improve his provisional fifth position. The Frenchman then achieves 1'48.406 which allows him to be at the top of the ranking, almost 3/10 ahead of Joan mir.

On the next pass, the reference imposed by the Frenchman drops to 1'48.210, almost half a second faster than the Suzuki rider.

Miguel Oliveira then positions his KTM RC16 in seventh place, but it is Aleix I will espargaro who creates a surprise by placing his Aprilia RS–GP in third position!

Five minutes from the end of the session, Maverick Vinales imposes a 1'47.771 while everyone is now on soft tires at the rear!

Johann zarco then experiences his second crash of the weekend, this time at turn #2. Provisionally ranked 10th, his position seems fragile and, indeed, Alex Marquez dislodging him from the top 10, thus greatly minimizing his chances of a direct passage to Q2.

MotoGP Aragón Grand Prix FP2 standings:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com