MotoGP Race And Practice Results

The qualifying session of the intermediate class served to confirm that we will run out of headlines regarding the two EG 0,0 Marc VDS teammates at some point this season. Alex Marquez went out and broke the circuit record on only his third lap, while title leader Franco Morbidelli kept as close as five hundredths of a second.

Dominique Aegerter performed admirably to secure third despite a strange slide-turned-into-a-highside midway through the session. Those early laps proved to decide the final front row distribution, all three men under the previous record set by Sam Lowes.

The final rush on new tyres didn’t bear much fruit for the top men, very few improvements to the hierarchy taking place, including Tom Luthi lifting himself into twelfth position. That being said, he was almost a second down on Marquez so not much of a win for the Swiss rider, who will have quite a challenge to defend his championship position.

Miguel Oliveira will head the second row of the grid, followed by Mattia Pasini and a much improved Pecco Bagnaia. Some other notable performances were Xavi Vierge in seventh position, six tenths down on the leader, Marcel Schrotter in ninth and Khairul Idham Pawi in sixteenth, the Malaysian breaking into the top twenty for the first time this season.

Results:

In the high temperatures under the Andalusian sun, most of the grid was keen to try out the harder front tyre. Marc Marquez was the one to make the most of it, with a hard-hard combination that proved much less successful for Valentino Rossi. The reigning world champion used the hard rubber to post the fastest time of the session, as well as a good pace with high 1:39s and low 1:40s.

Two Yamahas completed the top three, but perhaps the less likely Yamahas in Jonas Folger, who led the session early on, and teammate Johann Zarco, who also showed good race pace, both within two tenths of Marquez.

Another stellar performer was Jorge Lorenzo, the Spaniard building on a good FP3 and finishing fourth while testing different tyre combinations on his Ducati. Cal Crutchlow was the next Honda, in fifth position, while Rossi improved significantly on the medium rear tyre to post a series of low 1:40s and the sixth quickest time.

Andrea Dovizioso is looking more like himself in seventh position and will be expecting to go through Q1 without an issue. Dani Pedrosa had a low-key session after dominating practice all weekend, the Spaniard opting for the same hard front tyre as his Honda colleagues, an unusual occurrence considering his slender frame.

A much improved duo completed the top ten, Pol Espargaro bringing his KTM within six tenths of the leading Honda, and Tito Rabat progressing steadily throughout the weekend to finish ahead of his teammate.

The most frustrated face of FP4 was Maverick Viñales, who couldn’t find his rhythm down in sixteenth position and with a set of 1:41s on his last run.

Results:

We’re only four races in but you wouldn’t really expect anything else but an EG 0,0 Marc VDS bike into top position in any one session of your choice, would you? And so it was, Alex Marquez hogging another headline in Jerez. It could have been an even better headline if he had another three thousandths of a second in hand to beat the lap record. We'll have to wait for qualifying practice.

He might have hit the floor at some point yesterday, unlike any other weekend this year, but Franco Morbidelli woke up more than eager to get back to the top of timesheets. And so he did, the Italian leading for most of the session before his teammate came charging. Still, he kept within a tenth of the younger Marquez while also showing consistent pace.

Mattia Pasini was third, once again within two tenths of his fellow Italian, with Simone Corsi fourth, a further two tenths down. Miguel Oliveira was the last man into the 1:42s, with Luca Marini sixth, over half a second down on the other famous sibling at the top.

Jorge Navarro, Dominique Aegerter and Pecco Bagnaia also seem to be sneaking their way up the timesheets at every available opportunity, while Tom Luthi is still having trouble around the Spanish track, finishing down in twelfth position, seven tenths down on Marquez.

Results:

The sunnier predictions for Saturday turned out to be true, although temperature was still a little low when the lightweight class hit the track. Still, the first laps already managed to improve Friday’s pace by two seconds, with the softer option rear tyre making an appearance in the final minutes to challenge those times further.

The last minute saw red sectors flashing everywhere, but it was podium regular Jorge Martin who proved to be yet again a contender by leading the third practice session with a time that was four tenths off the lap record.

While Martin was hardly a surprise, the man in second position failed to show much pace early on but Marcos Ramirez made the best out of new tyres and finished less than a tenth behind his fellow Spaniard.

Aron Canet looked to have bounced back from the disappointment of Texas to lead the timesheets in the final fifteen minutes, eventually dropping down to third position. FP2 leader Joan Mir was consistently near the top as well, making it an exclusively-Spanish top four.

The Italian trio of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Nicolo Bulega and Andrea Migno took positions five to seven within a tenth of each other, while Romano Fenati led the early part of the session only to drop back to eighth. John McPhee appeared to be struggling with a small hand injury from a crash on Friday and ended up ninth, almost a second off the leader.

Results: