21 points seemed like a reassuring advantage, but the decisive weekend of the season was decidedly uphill for Pecco Bagnaia, because the leader of the world championship standings will be forced to pass through Q1 of the MotoGP Valencian Community Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion gave the sensation of not having been able to find the right feeling with his Ducati on this first day of testing and fell into the trap of his rival Jorge Martin, who in the decisive run of the afternoon session, the time attack, glued himself to Pecco’s exhaust probably with the aim of making him nervous. A target that seems to have been achieved.
In fact, Bagnaia was unable to do better than the 15th time in 1’29″801. On the other hand, his rival from Prima Pramac Racing proved to be particularly fit, as he placed his Ducati in second place. The Spaniard bowed only to an amazing Maverick Vinales, who with his 1’29″142 shattered Jorge Lorenzo’s previous record of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, which had stood since 2016.
In the end the Aprilia rider trailed the “Martinator” by 147 thousandths, but it must be said that the large group is really compact, because Bagnaia, despite being 15th, was also only 659 thousandths behind. But it surprises him to see him in such difficulty, because in the top five positions there are as many as four Ducatis.
Behind Martin’s Desmosedici GP, in fact, we also find those of Johann Zarco, of a Fabio Di Giannantonio who is probably the best of all in terms of pace and therefore seems to have some good cards to play to try for an encore in Qatar, and that of Marco Bezzecchi, who reacted very well to a crash at turn 8 which occurred in the early stages of the session. The standard bearer of the Mooney VR46 completes an all-inclusive top 5 in just 254 thousandths.
Just 6 thousandths further back, in sixth position, we then find Brad Binder’s KTM, followed closely by Marc Marquez’s Honda which on one of his beloved tracks that turn counterclockwise gave the sensation of being more competitive than usual. Which is also certified by its gap of 317 thousandths.
Among the riders who have direct access to Q2 there is also room for the other two Aprilias of Raul Fernandez, eighth with the RNF Racing RS-GP, and Aleix Espargaro, who managed to be fast on the time attack despite being all He is anything but fit due to the fracture of the head of the fibula suffered in Qatar. Among other things, the Granollers rider also crashed at turn 1, but this does not seem to have worsened his condition.
The picture of Q2 is completed with the ninth time of Jack Miller, who managed to climb quite high despite having crashed twice in this session. The first, a rather violent highside at turn 3, also caused a red flag due to debris from his KTM that remained on the track.
What is certain is that tomorrow morning, however, Bagnaia will not have an easy time gaining the pass for Q2, because he will have to contend with several accredited names, starting with the other two Ducatis of Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini, both of whom were out for a few months. of thousandths in 11th and 12th position. But also with that of Luca Marini, 17th, who was unable to finish the last run due to a fall.
Without forgetting the two Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, who precede him in 13th and 14th position. As incisive as the Frenchman was until the last quarter of an hour of the round, we can’t help but talk about a disappointing final result today for him too.
There were so many crashes in this round, because in addition to those already mentioned there were also those of the returning Alex Rins and the two GasGas Tech3s of Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez. The one in FP1, however, cost Joan Mir his presence on the track in the afternoon: the Honda rider was very sore in his neck and for this reason he was transferred to hospital, where the tests he underwent ruled out the presence of fractures. However, the Majorcan remained rested and will have to get fit tomorrow to get back on his RC213V.
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