Four Ducatis, one Yamaha and a three-place grid penalty add to the headlines on Day 1.
Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) set a 1:31.517 in MotoGP™ FP2 to end Day 1 at the Gran Premio Gryfyn di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini top of the pile, with the Italian beating 2023 teammate Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) by just 0.114s. Bastianini took his first premier class podium at the venue here last year, and now the Beast is back and qicker than ever. Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) made it a Desmosedici 1-2-3 on Friday afternoon, the top three split by 0.185s, but there was another headline from the red garage: a three-place grid penalty for Bagnaia after the Italian was slow on the line in FP1…
Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) topped FP1 from Miller and a bolting Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Racing) as the wildcard showed some early speed at a venue he knows well, and Miller and Pirro proved the only two Borgo Panigale machines in the top five in the first session of the weekend. Bagnaia was sixth, but after getting in the way of Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol), having thought the session was finished, the Italian got his penalty. Nevertheless, he can still fight for and take pole in the history books, with the penalty applied after.
It wasn’t the start to the afternoon session that Ducati would have been looking for either, as Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) and then Bagnaia crashed unhurt in separate incidents, but by the end of play the Bologna bullets would be back on top.
Before that, Maverick Viñales and Aprilia Racing teammate Aleix Espargaro found themselves P1 and P2 heading into the final 20 minutes of FP2 as the RS-GP stars looked to be back in the groove following a tricky weekend at the Red Bull Ring. Viñales, at the summit, was nearly three tenths clear of the chasing pack after setting a 1:31.882. They’d also been ahead of Bagnaia in the morning.
Miller and Quartararo leapfrogged Aleix Espargaro to split the Aprilias with just under 15 minutes left on the clock, but it was still a good showing from Noale. Next, World Championship leader Quartararo climbed to P1 by just 0.004s, but then it was time attack territory…
Just before the chequered flag, Bastianini, Bagnaia and Zarco went P1, P2 and P3 in quick succession, and Miller joined them at the sharp end of the timesheets by taking over in P3. Viñales was trying to improve his time but the Spaniard couldn’t better his earlier pace, seeing Ducati lockout the top four positions.
Provisional Q2 places
Again, Quartararo leads the non-Desmosedici charge in P5 ahead of Viñales and Aleix Espargaro, the trio within half a second of Bastianini heading into Saturday’s action. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing), Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) and Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) were late improvers to pounce into the top 10, and with the weather looking uncertain, it could prove crucial in terms of automatic Q2 promotion…
Tune into MotoGP™ FP3 at 09:55 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday morning to see what the weather brings – and whether or not anyone can improve their Friday afternoon times in pursuit of a top 10. Then it’s FP4 before qualifying sets the grid from 14:10!
FRIDAY: TOP 3
1 Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP) – Ducati – 1’31.517
2 Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) – Ducati – +0.114
3 Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) – Ducati – +0.185
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