Quartararo Leads Practice In Jerez, Márquez Down Twice In A Minute
Calum Gill 16:07 29/04/2022
Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo ended Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on top, while Marc Márquez crashed twice within the span of a minute.
On a push lap around the halfway point of the session, Márquez folded the front of his Honda RC213V entering the hairpin-like corner named after his former team-mate Dani Pedrosa, sliding off at low speed and remounting the bike. Yet just three corners later he had to move off the racing line coming into the Angel Nieto corner in order to let KTM’s Miguel Oliveira through, which resulted in him catching a damp patch and dropping his Honda again, this time into the gravel. This damaged the RC213V enough again for Márquez to instead hitch a ride with none other than Pedrosa, now a KTM tester and only too happy to give Márquez a scooter lift back to the paddock.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia took the lead from LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami coming into the final minutes of the session with a 01:37.283, and had a lap 0.020 seconds better chalked off for track limits the next time by. But it won’t have been enough anyway to prevent Quartararo - on pole at Jerez in all four of his MotoGP starts there so far - from jumping ahead with a 01:37.071, although it would have prevented Bagnaia from slipping down to third behind Gresini’s Enea Bastianini. Pramac’s Jorge Martín made it three Ducatis in the top four, followed by Nakagami, who had both Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder and the works Honda of Pol Espargaró within a hundredth of his time.
Álex Rins was the lead Suzuki in eighth, while Maverick Viñales was top Aprilia a place behind. Jack Miller completed the top 10 on the factory Ducati, ahead of Portimao pole sitter Johann Zarco of Pramac, and Suzuki's Joan Mir. Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli was 14th, ahead of Red Bull KTM's Miguel Oliveira and LCR Honda rider Álex Márquez. The two VR46 riders followed, with Luca Marini edging Marco Bezzecchi. Marc Márquez did remount after the crash, but was not among the 16 riders within a second of Quartararo’s time, and incurred the wrath of Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) late on in the session over an unseen incident. Márquez ended Friday in 19th place.
