The MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix opened with an interim session, although in a way we could say that it went well that way. Given the amount of rain that fell on the Misano circuit on Wednesday and Thursday, it is almost a miracle that the riders of the premier class were able to enjoy a session with pale sunshine and with the trajectories gradually drying out.
In the first part, it was a waiting session and in fact it only started to get serious in the last 20 minutes. But if you think about what the conditions were, the times that came out are much more than noteworthy.
It should come as no surprise that, with the track constantly evolving, the one who shone in the end was Marc Marquez, who usually thrives in these conditions. Coming off two consecutive victories, the Gresini Racing rider also started this second Romagna stage on the right foot, coming close to breaking the 1’32” barrier with his 1’32″082.
The eight-time world champion opens an all-Ducati poker, in which he is followed by the world championship leader Jorge Martin, who closed with a gap of just 63 thousandths with the GP24 of Prima Pramac Racing. After finding the podium in the Sprint of the last race, his teammate Franco Morbidelli also confirmed his excellent form, third at 186 thousandths.
In fourth place is the reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia, who follows at just under three tenths. The Piedmontese decided to remember his friend Luca Salvadori by putting a sticker on the windshield of his Desmosedici GP and towards the end he also began to lower his references in an interesting way.
The first of the “others” was Maverick Vinales, who set the fifth fastest time with the Aprilia, but was already more than four tenths behind. In his wake was the second GP23 of Gresini Racing, that of Alex Marquez, followed closely by the two KTMs of Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder, both just over half a second behind.
Fabio Quartararo seems to have confirmed the progress shown by Yamaha in the last appointment this morning, because he placed ninth at 659 thousandths. Much more behind was his teammate Alex Rins, who closes the group. The Spanish rider, however, probably must have had a problem or considered this session useless, because he completed just 4 laps.
The top 10 is completed by the other KTM of Jack Miller, fresh from signing to return to Prima Pramac Racing, but this time riding a Yamaha. Enea Bastianini’s weekend started a bit quietly, as he did not go beyond 12th place, behind Miguel Oliveira’s Aprilia Trackhouse and ahead of the official one of Aleix Espargaro.
The two VR46 riders also fell behind, with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is not yet 100% recovered from the problem with his left shoulder, occupying 16th place and Marco Bezzecchi who is 21st despite having been one of the first to take to the track this morning.
In between the two GP23s of Pertamina Enduro VR46 there are instead the four Hondas and the RC213V package is led by the home rider Luca Marini, 17th at 1″3, who precedes Johann Zarco by a handful of thousandths. Then there are Takaaki Nakagami and Joan Mir. In these weekends, the Japanese manufacturer should also carry out comparative tests with the new aerodynamic package introduced in the test last Monday.
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