MotoGP LIVE Qatar FP4: The French are back!

Two confirmations and two surprises, such could be the very brief summary of the first day of the MotoGP Grand Prix on the Losail circuit in Qatar.

At the “confirmations” level, we will cite Suzuki and Honda who had already impressed during the 2022 winter tests and who therefore confirm to be at the very forefront for this first Grand Prix of the year. This is a novelty in the sense that the GSX-RRs were until now more used to being good in races but a tone below during testing. We had also become accustomed to seeing Honda's chances limited to Marc Marquez, which was again the case on Friday, despite a very good performance of the RC213V during winter testing showing the step forward made in Tokyo this winter.

In terms of "surprises", we will again cite Suzuki but also Ducati, the Japanese manufacturer obtaining the best top speed, a revealing sign of a step forward made on its 4-cylinder in-line engine that will make Yamaha dream, while the men from Borgo Panigale, in the throes of the development of their 2022 motorcycles/engines, clearly and suddenly lost yesterday the scarecrow status that they displayed at the end of last year and this winter.
– Suzuki: 354,6 km/h
– Aprilia 352,9 km/h
– Honda: 352,3 km/h
-Ducati: 351,5 km/h
– KTM: 347,2 km/h
– Yamaha: 345,8 km/h

It is of course still too early to try to definitively set any hierarchy but the good news lies in the simple but important confirmation that we are undoubtedly entering one of the most open seasons than ever.

Here, Álex Rins, Marc Márquez, Joan Mir, Jorge Martín, Franco Morbidelli, Jack Miller, Aleix Espargaró, Fabio Quartararo, Pol Espargaró and Francesco Bagnaia have therefore provisionally pre-qualified directly for Q2, all in the same half-second.

This morning, Enea Bastianini, Pol Espargaró and Francesco Bagnaia managed to improve, thus excluding fabio quartararo direct passage to Q2.



The Devil and John Zarco, will therefore have the difficult task of preparing for both the race and qualifying 1 during this session normally only intended to run in race configuration.

The temperatures are currently 23° in the air and 28° on the asphalt, as the 24 protagonists prepare under the lenses of the cameras on the official website MotoGP.com.



Let's remember again that the Grand Prix will take place over 22 laps on Sunday from 16 p.m. French time, and let's keep in mind the references of the last Grand Prix on the Losail circuit before giving way to live:

Qatar MotoGP™	2021	2022
FP1	1'54.779 Aleix Espargaró (See here)	1'54.851 Brad Binder (See here)
FP2	1'53.145 Jack Miller (See here)	1'53.432 Alex Rins (See here)
FP3	1'56.064 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'53.790 Enea Bastianini (See here)
FP4	1'54.543 Johann Zarco (See here)	1'54.420 Johann Zarco (See here)
Q1	1'53.931 Joan Mir (See here)	(See here)
Q2	1'53.106 Jorge Martín (See here)	(See here)
Warm up	1'54.482 Johann Zarco (See here)	(See here)
Course	Quartararo, Zarco, Martin (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	1'52.772 Francesco Bagnaia 2021 (See here)

When the red lights go out... Joan mir rushes first with Andrea Dovizioso et Alex Marquez. Fabio Quartararo remains faithful to his strategy of leaving after everyone, except this time Franco Morbidelli.

We immediately note that many drivers chose a soft/soft combination in this session intended to prepare for the race...

From the first round, Darryn binder seems to be having problems and returns his Yamaha to the stand via the service lane.

 Jack Miller The first flying lap proved to be the fastest, in 1'55.343. Marc Marquez takes over on the next pass in 1'54.938, ahead Jorge Martín et John Zarco.

In his third flying lap, fabio quartararo moves up to second position with a medium rear tire.

Pol Espargaro in tender rear then seizes the leadership, 8 thousandths ahead of an unexpected Brad Binder in the rear midrange. At this point in the session, no less than 21 drivers are within the same second!

Halfway through the session, things calm down even more as most of the drivers return to their boxes…

On resumption, Johann zarco moves up to 5th position, Aleix Espargaró in the 3rd. The Aprilia rider continued his effort and achieved the best time, for 2/1000, in 1'54.808. No less than seven drivers are then in less than a tenth of a second!

Speaking of the extremely small gap, three minutes from the checkered flag, fabio quartararo his Yamaha is a thousandth from the fastest!

Johann zarco then produced his effort and put his name at the top of the ranking, in 1'54.622. There are 40 seconds left... which the Frenchman uses to improve his time to 1'54.420.

Ranking of FP4 of the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix on the Losail/Lusail circuit: 

Credit rankings: MotoGP.com