Ai Ogura led Marco Bezzecchi in Practice for the Czech Grand Prix, but it wasn’t a perfect day for Aprilia as Jorge Martin missed out on a direct entry into Q2.
Known for his qualifying struggles, Trackhouse’s Ogura showed strong one-lap pace in a record-breaking session at Brno, beating factory rider Bezzecchi to the top spot by just under a tenth.
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio ended up third, as Aprilia, KTM and Ducati all took turns at the top of the timesheets.
Di Giannantonio set the early pace in practice, just hours after fellow Ducati rider Marc Marquez had dominated the opening practice at Brno.
However, it didn’t take long for Aprilia to surge to the front, with factory rider Marco Bezzecchi moving to the top spot with a time of 1m53.080s.
The Italian’s time remained unbeaten until about 20 minutes into the session, when Pedro Acosta snatched the top spot by just 0.078s for the KTM.
Around midway through the session, Aprilia riders deviated from the usual strategy and switched to a new set of tyres early, with Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez taking advantage of fresh rubber to set the first sub-1m53s time of the day.
Fernandez’s team-mate Ogura went even faster just moments later, before championship leader Bezzecchi set a new track record in 1m52.275s on the factory RS-GP to move the goalposts.
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
With about a third of the session remaining, the KTMs began lighting up the timesheets, disrupting Aprilia’s hegemony at Brno. Maverick Vinales first climbed to second aboard the Tech3 bike, before factory rider Acosta displaced Bezzecchi from the top by just under half a tenth.
The final high-performance runs began with 15 minutes remaining on the clock, with Marquez putting Ducati at the front with a blistering time of 1m51.988s on the factory bike.
That was despite the reigning world champion going down at Turn 11 in the first 10 minutes of the session, in what was his second crash of the day.
Marquez looked set to end the day on top, but di Giannantonio managed to find another half a tenth to move to the top with 1m51.942s.
Ultimately, Aprilia had the final laugh on Friday afternoon, as Bezzecchi and then Ogura successfully overhauled di Giannantonio’s Ducati.
Ogura ended up fastest among the two Aprilias with a time of 1m51.735, while di Giannantonio held on to third despite an impressive time from Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati in the final moments of the session.
Marquez eventually ended the day fifth behind Bagnaia, while Acosta could only manage sixth on the KTM.
Honda’s Joan Mir finished an impressive seventh despite crashing at Turn 7 with two minutes remaining in practice and bringing out the yellow flags.
He just edged out rookie Diogo Moreira on the LCR Honda, as Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) completed the top 10.
Martin briefly moved to eighth but was ultimately shuffled out of the top 10 by a flurry of late improvements, leaving him in Q1 on a weekend when he is carrying a double long-lap penalty.
Vinales could only muster 12th after his early heroics, while the fastest Yamaha was Fabio Quartararo in 14th, seven tenths down on pacesetter Ogura.
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