MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

After the earlier downpour caused a longer delay than the sprint itself lasted, the premier class still provided some entertainment and presumably some nice photos in the golden afternoon sun shining over the Buddh circuit. Although the racing line had dried nicely, damp patches on the grid caused some trouble at the start – even though Jorge Martin stole the show as he launched into the lead straight away and stayed there until he became the first MotoGP victor on Indian soil. Pecco Bagnaia’s pace was no match for the Spaniard’s but the world champion had a quiet ride into second place, while Marc Marquez finally returned to the sprint podium after defending third place for much of the 11 laps. 

There were mixed fortunes in the Marquez family, as Alex was declared unfit after fracturing three ribs in a Q1 crash and missing the action. Luca Marini then became the next victim of the sprint, the Italian’s overly eager approach to the first corner, coupled with his teammate’s poor start from pole, meant that the two collided and Marco Bezzecchi found himself at the very back of the grid by turn two. While the poleman was regrouping, Martin was long gone, with Bagnaia in tow, followed by the Hondas of Joan Mir and Marquez. Brad Binder also made a lightning start to go from 13th on the grid into the top five, followed by Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales, Jack Miller, Johann Zarco and Raul Fernandez in the early top 10. A poor opening lap from Aleix Espargaro dropped him outside the top 15 and his race eventually ended with a crash a few laps later. 

Back at the front, Martin only needed a lap or so to ditch Bagnaia over a second behind, the Italian still fending off the Hondas, who were focused on each other, after Marquez attacked Mir and awaited retaliation. Before Mir could find a way back past his teammate, he found the gravel on lap four, leaving Binder as the next challenger, almost a second behind the remaining Honda. While Binder was trying to catch back up with Marquez, the likes of Quartararo, Miller, Zarco, Viñales and Raul Fernandez were holding onto the remaining point scoring positions – at least until the end of lap five, when Bezzecchi’s rapid recovery allowed him to rob the Aprilias in quick succession. Bezzecchi’s phenomenal pace was then helped further by a crash from Zarco one lap later and the Italian had clear air to hunt down Miller for sixth place. 

Martin rode a much less eventful race, doubling his advantage to two seconds by lap seven, while Bagnaia distanced Marquez by another second. With Martin and Bagnaia looking pretty secure in the top positions, all eyes were on Marquez and Binder for the last few of laps, the duo only separated by a few tenths of a second but the opportunity never came for the KTM man and Marquez kept the podium. Quartararo was also getting closer to the battle for third in the last couple of laps but never got within striking distance. On the other hand, Bezzecchi made light work of Miller with four laps remaining and the 1.3 seconds gap to Quartararo proved very much doable, as the poleman robbed the Frenchman of fifth on the final lap, to finish only half a second behind the podium battle. The final points went to Miller, Viñales and Raul Fernandez. 

Bagnaia’s persistent presence on the podium helps him maintain top spot in the world championship standings, although Martin continues to chip away at his advantage, now down to 33 points, with Bezzecchi limiting the damage to 69 points. 

Results:

After the deluge of Moto3, the intermediate class faced the challenge of a damp but drying track and the experience of Q1 was a big advantage, at least until Jake Dixon and Pedro Acosta turned up to the party. The duo traded top spot in the last handful of minutes of Q2 and it all came down to a mistake in the final sector for the Spaniard, while a faultless last lap secured Dixon pole position. Acosta settled for second place by three hundredths of a second, while Sergio Garcia’s Q1 adventures helped him onto the remaining place on the front row. 

Q1 leader Zonta van den Goorbergh and fellow Q1 escapee Darryn Binder also came close to challenging for pole before securing a second row start ahead of Alonso Lopez. Tony Arbolino opens third row ahead of Joe Roberts and Somkiat Chantra, with Celestino Vietti completing the top 10. Marcos Ramirez and Sam Lowes join the Italian on the fourth row, while Barry Baltus couldn’t quite replicate the achievements of his Q1 colleagues and only qualified 13th, sharing fifth row with Jeremy Alcoba and Ai Ogura. P3 leader Manuel Gonzalez struggled in the tricky conditions and finished the session 16th, ahead of Filip Salac and Dennis Foggia. The big surprise of Q1 came from Aron Canet, who got stuck in 20th position on the grid. 

Results:

Heavy rain arrived at the end of Q1 for the lightweight class and added wind and poor visibility to the mix, causing significant delays to Q2. Action eventually got underway on wet asphalt and Jaume Masia had the early advantage, the Spaniard quickly adapting to the conditions and consistently faster than everyone else. Although rivals hinted at some red sector times, Masia finished the session in pole position by seven tenths of a second, with Matteo Bertelle as his main challenger. Ayumu Sasaki’s late charge brought him within five hundredths of a second of the Italian and onto the final place on the front row. 

Scott Ogden successfully escaped Q1 and seemed to enjoy the difficult conditions of Q2 even more, climbing as high as fourth on the grid. Kaito Toba was helped into Q2 by a cancelled lap for Dani Holgado, which left the championship leader stranded in Q1 and promoted the Japanese rider instead, who took advantage of the opportunity to secure fifth. Diogo Moreira completes the second row of the grid, with Stefano Nepa opening third row from Taiyo Furusato and Collin Veijer. 

David Salvador completes the top 10, while Q1 leader Deniz Öncü qualified 11th but will be starting at the back of the grid and with a long lap penalty after failing to comply with a black flag in the last practice session. That promotes Ryusei Yamanaka and Ivan Ortolá to the fourth row, while Riccardo Rossi, David Muñoz and Joel Kelso complete fifth row. Rookie Jose Antonio Rueda heads sixth row ahead of David Alonso, with Holgado starting from 18th on the grid. 

Results:

It might be a new track but it is the same old sight on the front row, with Ducatis as far as the eye can see. Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin traded top spot throughout qualifying, until the Italian posted the first 1:43 time of the weekend with two minutes remaining and although Martin soon joined him in the exclusive 1:43 club, the Spaniard ran out of steam and Bezzecchi soon secured his fourth pole position in the premier class. Martin missed out by four hundredths of a second and the two will be joined by rival Pecco Bagnaia, the world champion completing the front row line-up despite some shaky moments on his best lap. 

Luca Marini opens the second row of the grid, the Italian only two tenths slower than his teammate, while Honda make a surprise appearance on the second row. Joan Mir and Marc Marquez both chased Bagnaia in the closing stages of Q2 and helped themselves to fifth and sixth on the grid – Mir’s best qualifying since joining the team. Some late progress from Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo promoted the Frenchmen ahead of the Aprilias at the chequered flag, with Maverick Viñales joining them on the third row of the grid. 

After a bit of a false start to Q2, an animated Aleix Espargaro struggled to go quicker than tenth, ahead of Raul Fernandez, who finally showed up to the party and led the way in Q1. Alex Marquez joined his compatriot in escaping the first qualifying session but could not take part in Q2 due to a trip to the medical centre following a highside at the end of Q1. The late yellow flags proved costly for teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio, who missed out by one hundredth of a second, and Brad Binder, who ended up as the lead KTM in 14th position on the grid. 

Results: 

The heat was still enveloping the Buddh circuit on Saturday morning, although the intermediate class welcomed some cloud cover, allowing for many early improvements on the timesheets. After Tony Arbolino stole the show on Friday, rival Pedro Acosta was quick to demote him in P3 but a late red flag prompted a four-minute shootout where Manuel Gonzalez improved the lap record by another tenth from Acosta. The Spaniard had to settle for second, with Celestino Vietti joining the top three on the final lap. 

Joe Roberts and Alonso Lopez completed a top five covered by only three tenths of a second, with even smaller margins separating the rest of the top 14 positions. Ai Ogura, Filip Salac and a surprising Dennis Foggia also posted times within half a second of the leader, while Sam Lowes and Marcos Ramirez completed the top 10. Jake Dixon’s day started with a tumble at turn eight, which limited his track time and saw him drop out of Q2 contention until reclaiming 11th place at the final try. 

Jeremy Alcoba and Somkiat Chantra also secured Q2 positions, while Arbolino was the only rider who failed to go any quicker in the final practice session but was safely inside the combined top 14. Zonta van den Goorbergh was unlucky to miss out by only two thousandths of a second, not helped by a late tumble, and will be joined in Q1 by Aron Canet, who also slid out on his final lap. 

Results:

The final practice session allowed the lightweight class another opportunity to improve the lap record and after Collin Veijer led the way on Friday and for much of P3, Diogo Moreira robbed him of top honours on the very last lap. The rookie’s benchmark had stood until the final five minutes of the session, when Veijer himself improved it but ultimately had to settle for second by six hundredths of a second. Teammate Ayumu Sasaki had a pretty eventful morning, with his bike catching fire after a fairly innocuous tumble at turn three, but he was quickly able to rejoin and climb into third place. 

Taiyo Furusato made a late jump into fourth ahead of Matteo Bertelle, with Jaume Masia keeping sixth despite being one of the few riders who hadn’t improved compared to Friday. Jose Antonio Rueda secured seventh place after an early fall, while David Alonso saved himself on the last lap to claim eighth. Riccardo Rossi and Ivan Ortolá completed the top 10, while the remaining Q2 tickets went to Joel Kelso, David Salvador, Stefano Nepa and David Muñoz. 

If Sasaki managed to turn his luck around, his title rivals weren’t as lucky on Saturday morning, with Dani Holgado dropping to 17th after a late highside at turn 11 and Deniz Öncü crashing on pitlane entry before setting his fastest time while being shown the black flag. The Turkish rider immediately saw his Q2-worthy lap time cancelled due to ignoring the flags and will have to join Holgado in the Q1 line-up - as long as the injury allows him because he appeared to be in some discomfort following the unusual incident. 

Results:

Luca Marini has ended as fastest in an entertaining session of practice for the MotoGP class at the Buddh International Circuit. Marini was a mere eight thousandths of a second faster than Jorge Martin, while Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro was third.

There were a spate of fast laps matched by a spate of yellow flags at the end of the session, meaning laps for Brad Binder and Augusto Fernandez were canceled, pushing them out of the top ten. Marc Marquez ended the session in fourth on the Repsol Honda, Marco Bezzecchi putting the Mooney VR46 Ducati into fifth, and Maverick Viñales sixth fastest on the other factory Aprilia.

Pecco Bagnaia spent all session concentrating on race pace, only pushing for a quick lap at the end, and jumping up to seventh on the timesheets, just ahead of Monster Energy Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo. Johann Zarco was ninth on the other Pramac Ducati, while Joan Mir had a very solid day on the Repsol Honda to just squeeze into Q2, profiting from the canceled laps of Binder and Fernandez.

Binder's canceled laps mean that all four KTMs are in Q1 on Saturday, with Binder twelfth and Jack Miller down in eighteenth.

Most of the riders seemed to have made a step in understanding the track during the afternoon session, though Turn 1 remained a problem, with riders consistently missing their braking markers and plowing through the gravel.

Results:

Results:

Results:

Marco Bezzecchi has topped the timesheets in the extended first session of free practice for the MotoGP class at the Buddh International Circuit, though that doesn't mean too much in a session which was much more about learning the track than chasing lap times. Most riders improved their times by 3 to 4 seconds from their first runs to their last.

The track is still lacking a bit of grip, though that improved as the MotoGP bikes started to lay rubber down. Finding braking markers proved to be the greater challenge, especially at Turn 1, as riders seemed to be running on, either into the gravel or over the paint, on about a quarter of their laps. There were a few crashers too, Pol Espargaro going down twice, Takaaki Nakagami having a fast crash at Turn 1, among others.

Fabio Quartararo had perhaps the worst start of the MotoGP grid. The Monster Energy Yamaha team suffered a technical problem on both his bikes, forcing him to pull off track. Quartararo managed a total of 10 laps, where others were doing 25. Teammate Franco Morbidelli did a little better, managing 17 laps.

The afternoon session will be a much more important affair, as riders settle in to attempt to qualify for Q2. By then, the track should have cleaned up further.

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