MotoGP Catalan GP: Pedro Acosta tops practice, Jorge Martin goes into Q1

Pedro Acosta led the way for KTM in Practice for the Catalan Grand Prix on Friday, while in-form Aprilia rider Jorge Martin struggled to 17th after crashing twice.

Acosta posted a time of 1m38.710s with 15 minutes remaining and held on to the top spot, beating the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez by just 0.018s in another ultra-competitive session where the top 10 riders were separated by just a quarter of a second. 

Acosta’s team-mate Brad Binder finished third to wrap up a strong day for the factory KTM team, while two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia joined Martin in the list of riders forced into Q1.

At the start of the session, championship leader Marco Bezzecchi immediately went out on soft tyres on his Aprilia, going to the top of the timesheets with a 1m39.062s.

Fabio di Giannantonio slotted into second on the VR46 Ducati, a tenth down on Bezzecchi, with reigning Catalan GP winner Marquez grabbing third early on for Gresini Ducati.

It wasn’t until halfway through the session that there was a change to the top-three, as Ai Ogura moved to second behind Bezzecchi on the Trackhouse Aprilia – and crashed just moments later at Turn 2.

The final soft tyre runs began with about 20 minutes left on the clock, with Binder first to dispatch Bezzecchi from the top with what was the first sub-1m39s lap of the day.

Just minutes later, Binder’s factory KTM team-mate Acosta found another two tenths to snatch the top spot, while Tech3’s Enea Bastianini moved up to establish a 1-2-3 for the Austrian manufacturer.

KTM’s stranglehold was broken in the final 10 minutes, when di Giannantonio responded with a 1m38.905s to go second, before Marquez closed within 0.018s of Acosta on his soft-tyre flying lap.

Despite a flurry of late improvements from other riders, the times set by Acosta and Marquez remained unbeaten, as the Spanish duo completed a 1-2 on home turf. Binder, however, made a late improvement to surge to third place in what was his most competitive session in recent memory.

Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez ended up as the top Aprilia rider in fourth following a late lap, while LCR’s Johann Zarco led Honda’s charge in fifth place. Just 0.079s separated the top five riders, with Fernandez and Zarco finishing one thousandth of a second adrift of each other.

Early pacesetters di Giannantonio and Bezzecchi also found some time late in the session but could only finish sixth and seventh respectively, the former again establishing himself as the top rider within Ducati’s ranks.

Joan Mir rose to eighth on the factory Honda before going down at Turn 10, while Yamaha duo Jack Miller and Fabio Quartararo sneaked into the top 10 late in the session.

The last-minute improvements from Miller and Quartararo dumped Tech3’s Enea Bastianini into Q1, while Bagnaia could also not secure a direct passage into Q2 on a tough day for the factory Ducati rider. Bagnaia remained outside the top 10 for much of the session, and while a late flyer initially promoted him to eighth, he was eventually shuffled down to 12th.

But the biggest shock of the day came courtesy of French GP winner Martin, who ended up 17th and seven tenths off the pace on the factory Aprilia. The 2024 champion was visibly frustrated when he crashed at Turn 2 with three minutes left on the clock. This was the second incident of the day for the Spaniard, who previously suffered a scary crash at Turn 10 in the morning session and had to visit the medical centre for check-ups. 

MotoGP Catalan GP – Practice results

We want your opinion!

– The Motorsport.com Team

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com