MotoGP LIVE Catalonia Barcelona FP1: Aleix Espargaro dominates a soporific session

Article updated until the end of the session.

What is the grain of sand that could hinder the triumphant rise of fabio quartararo during the seventh meeting of the MotoGP world championship on the Catalunya–Barcelona circuit?

On paper, in fact, the French driver has all the cards in his game, starting with his leading position in the championship consolidated by his recent victory at Mugello, but also by his title of latest winner on the Catalan track, a track which seems to suit him particularly well, given his victory in Moto2 in 2018 and his second place in MotoGP the following year as a Rookie. There is no need to say: Barcelona and Quartararo, it’s a pretty good match, regardless route of turn #10 still remodeled This year !

If we add to these personal characteristics the fact that only the Q1 escaped Yamaha during the 2020 edition, we can imagine that the rating ofThe Devil reached new heights among bookmakers…

But even if the picture seems idyllic, the competition taught us that nothing is ever written in advance, so, in a somewhat childish attempt to predict the future, we start looking for elements that could contradict a somewhat too obvious prognosis.

The first one we think of comes from weather forecasts, particularly uncertain, therefore tricky, this weekend on the Mediterranean coast.

The forecasts evolve over the days and the latest ones predict rain for Sunday morning: not very reassuring for drivers who will undoubtedly have completed all their sessions in the dry, especially if the race ends up being declared flag to flag, with all the hazards that changing motorbikes entails…

The second obstacle is coated in red and carries number five, while occupying second place in the world rankings : on the 1047 meters of the downhill straight of the Catalan circuit, his GP21 is ready to swallow everything that moves with apparent ease, even when it is hit from behind...

We could also cite Suzuki, whose two representatives appeared on the podium last year, although this will definitely not be the case this year...

The danger could also come from one's own camp, with the return of Silvano Galbusera in the official box for the stage location.

We'll see !

The first free practice session of 45 minutes, which will take place under a cloudy but pleasant sky and temperatures of 25° in the air and 30° on the ground, will give us the tone of the melody which will be played on the ground Catalan.

As the 21 drivers prepare under the lenses of the Dorna cameras who will attempt to film the 24 expected spectators, let's take advantage of these few minutes of live footage thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Past references:

Catalunya-Barcelona MotoGP™	2020	2021 (New turn #10)
FP1	1'40.431 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'40.378 Aleix Espargaro (See here)
FP2	1'39.789 Franco Morbidelli (See here)
FP3	1'39.418 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP4	1'40.315 Maverick Vinales (See here)
Q1	1'39.399 Jack Miller (See here)
Q2	1'38.798 Franco Morbidelli (See here)
Warm Up	1'40.139 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
Course	Quartararo, Mir, Rins (See here)
All time lap record	1'38.680 Jorge Lorenzo 2018

When the red lights go out... Maverick Vinales rushes first while for once, Franco Morbidelli wait a few seconds in his box, what fabio quartararo applies with even more patience, giving his competitors time to cover at least two sectors before taking to the track.

Everyone is equipped with soft front/medium rear tires.

Alex Espargaro registered the first reference in 1'42.318 before leaving the command to his brother Pol in 141.724.

At the top of the ranking then parade Joan mir and Franco Morbidelli in 1'41.483 and fabio quartararo 1'41.357 at the end of the second flying lap.

Marc Marquez, Franco Morbidelli and Pol Espargaro extend this list, the Italian finally settling at the top of the ranking after 10 minutes in 1'40.402.

Last year's FP1 time is already beaten, but we know turn number 10 is a little faster than in its previous configuration...

At the end of the first run, Franco Morbidelli precede Pol Espargaro, Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales, Johann Zarco, Fabio Quartararo, Joan Mir, Takaaki Nakagami, Miguel Oliveira, Marc Márquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Valentino Rossi, Jack Miller, Iker Lecuona, Alex Márquez, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder, Danilo Petrucci , Luca Marini, Jorge Martin and Lorenzo Savadori.

On resumption, Jack Miller positions himself 9th before lighting two sectors in red but returning to his box: for the moment, we favor working on the clock... the Australian driver making the classic gestures of a rear that moves a lot when exiting a corner.

As Espargaro Pol who keeps his Minion helmet that appeared at Mugello, Marc Márquez offers a special decoration on his headgear…

After a period of calm from mid-session, things seemed to liven up a quarter of an hour from the checkered flag, when several drivers lit the first sector red. Unfortunately, these attempts mainly made in the straight line do not go any further for the moment, as most drivers repeat a passage in the box in order to prepare for the final rush...

The previous ranking has hardly changed while we see the presence of 16 drivers in the same second.

There are less than eight minutes left when most of the drivers come out of their boxes, none having deemed it useful to switch to a soft rear tire to tease the time.

The minutes pass but the session still does not liven up, the ranking still seems irremediably frozen.

Four minutes from the checkered flag, miracle, Danilo Petrucci gained a place in 13th position whileAlex Espargaro steals second position from his brother thanks to a new rear tire!

The Aprilia rider took the lead on the next pass, in 1'40.378, while the clock indicated less than a minute before the green lights went out.

In his last turn, George Martin jumped from 20th to 12th position, and that's all we can report at the end of this really not exciting session...

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

FP1 standings for the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com