MotoGP LIVE Spain FP2: The revenge of Francesco Bagnaia!

Article updated continuously until the end of the session.

After two rounds in Qatar and one in Portimao, the MotoGP village has now returned to Jerez de la Frontera, in southern Spain, for the Gran Premio Red Bull de España.

Given the specificities of the turbulent Portimao circuit, the Andalusian circuit is considered the first of the traditional European tour and, in this respect, is eagerly awaited by drivers and technicians: what works in Jerez generally works elsewhere. At least that was true in the past, but a little less now, because of the gaps that have become tiny between around ten drivers, all contenders for success...

Fabio Quartararo, on the scene of his double victory in 2020, will nevertheless try to increase his capital by 15 points on Francis Bagnaia, 20 on Maverick Vinales, 21 on John Zarco and 23 on Joan Mir.

Marc Marquez will write for his part, with the talent and courage that we know of him, the second chapter of his return, precisely on the circuit which saw him injured.

As for Valentino Rossi, who yesterday confirmed its agreement with Aramco to create its MotoGP team, he will not be able to hide the fact that he owes his last podium to the Spanish track, 9 months ago during a Yamaha hat-trick at the Andalusian Grand Prix, while he currently only has 4 small points in the championships.

Here are some of the ingredients of this 2021 Spanish Grand planned on a dry track all weekend, to which we can add the 10 drivers who provisionally pre-qualified for Q2 this morning, Brad Binder, Aleix Espargaro, Marc Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Johann Zarco, Miguel Oliveira, Pol Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir.

This afternoon, the sky is still cloudy and the temperatures are 21° in the air and 31° on the ground, when the 23 pilots (Stefan bradl rides as a wildcard, Esteve Rabat replaces George Martin injured) are preparing under the lenses of Dorna's cameras.

Let's enjoy these few minutes of live broadcast thanks to the official website MotoGP.com:

Here are the past references:

MotoGP ™	2020	2021
FP1	1'37.063 Maverick Viñales (see here)	1'38.013 Brad Binder (see here)
FP2	1'37.715 Takaaki Nakagami (see here)	1'37.209 Francesco Bagnaia (see here)
FP3	1'36.584 Maverick Viñales (see here)
FP4	1'37.514 Takaaki Nakagami (see here)
Q1	1'37.355 Miguel Oliveira (see here)
Q2	1'37.007 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Warm Up	1'37.710 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Course	Quartararo, Vinales, Rossi (see here)
All time lap record	1'36.584 Maverick Viñales 2020

When the red lights go out... Valentino Rossi, like this morning, is the first to set off. On the opposite, but still like this morning, fabio quartararo the last one to learn the track.

In terms of tires, with the exception of the two Suzukis and Lorenzo Savadori, we went up a notch in hardness:

At the end of the first round, who registers fabio quartararo which sets the first benchmark of the afternoon in 1'39.106.

Maverick Vinales, Aleix Espargaro then Johann Zarco impose themselves provisionally on the table but The Devil takes the best on the next pass in 1'38.292.

The times continue to go down and we see successively Stefan bradl and Alex Espargaro climb to the top of the ranking, the Aprilia rider in 1'38.023 almost equalizing the time of Brad Binder of this morning.

Alex Espargaro, in constant progress with theAprilia, does not suffer from any complexes facing Marc Márquez…

After 10 minutes, Fabio Quartararo continued his effort at a very good pace and achieved the best provisional time of the day in 1'37.993.

Franco Morbidelli is then remembered to the good memory of all in 1'37.965 then 1'37.704.

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

A little before mid-session, Pol Espargaro progresses but is still not prequalified for Q2, just like Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller, Joan Mir, Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi.

But the ranking continues to evolve, in particular with Alex Espargaro who snatches second position, Takaaki Nakagami the sixth, alex rins the seventh and Stefan Bradl the eighth. Takaaki Nakagami even climbs into second position 20 minutes from the checkered flag…

Obviously, the tests carried out here by Stefan bradl have borne fruit because the test pilot himself now occupies fourth position in the provisional ranking!

Ducati exhaust protectionEnea Bastianini breaks down... the Italian driver announced with humor that Carlo Pernat would henceforth be present on the starting grid with a hammer.

Tito Rabat, who occupies 21st position, falls violently but not seriously at turn #13.

At 11 minutes from the end of the session, before the soft tires come out, the prequalifiers are named Franco Morbidelli, Takaaki Nakagami, Aleix Espargaro, Stefan Bradl, Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder, Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins, Marc Márquez and Francesco Bagnaia.

Seven minutes from the checkered flag, it's still impressive to see fabio quartararo in his stand, without his headphones and with his headphones to listen to music!

Two minutes later, while Marc Marquez continues to line up the laps, the first soft rear tires are out.

Takaaki Nakagami et Miguel Oliveira are the first to launch themselves into battle, the Portuguese driver jumping from 16th to 3rd position.

Jack Miller goes from 14th to sixth position, but that's good fabio quartararo which changes the head of the ranking by slamming 1'37.695. The joy is short-lived because Alex Espargaro immediately imposes a 1'37.209, itself surpassed by Francesco Bagnaia thanks to a very nice 1'37.209.

In the end, the Ducati rider took revenge for his canceled qualifying time in Portugal, and alone Fabio Quartararo seems able to resist him.

Marc Márquez, he did not use a soft tire and preferred to continue driving, banking everything on FP3 to set his best time.

The last 5 minutes in video:

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See you tomorrow at 9:55 a.m. for FP3!

FP2 ranking of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez: 

Classification credit: MotoGP.com