MotoGP: The #72 pulls clear as Marc Marquez pulls out second late on, with Di Giannantonio on the chase and Bagnaia in Q1.
Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) makes it an official new lap record this time round as he slammed in a 1’28.526 on Friday, bettering his test lap to stamp even more authority on the first weekend of the MotoGP season. With clouds looming overhead and the clock ticking down it was a tense first Practice of the season, with both Marc Marquez and Ducati Lenovo teammate Francesco Bagnaia looking like they might miss out on Q2 as droplets of rain started to threaten.
While Marquez pulled out a lap for P2, Bagnaia didn’t make it through – with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) instead completing the top three.
Aprilia ominous on Friday
It was a strong day for Aprilia Racing’s duo of Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, who were inside the top five. Bezzecchi made it a Friday clean sweep, having topped FP1 and then setting a new lap record on Friday afternoon to hammer home even more swagger. The gap back to Marc Marquez is a whopping four tenths.
Martin, meanwhile, was fifth at the chequered flag. He’d shown speed in testing on his full-time, fully fit return to action but a P5 is a stunner. He also had a small crash on Friday morning, but with no drama at all.
Marquez P2 and Bagnaia Q1
It was very much a session of two halves for Marc Marquez, who spent a fair portion of it outside the top ten before bouncing up to fifth with 20 minutes to go. The early scare was well behind him when he jumped up the order into P2 by the end of the session. Bagnaia was putting in the red sectors but didn’t find that full lap, only managing 15th. He’ll want to make a statement on Saturday morning, having been the lap record holder now robbed by Bezzecchi.
The closest contenders
More testing form was translated from pre-season to Round 1, this time in the case of Di Giannantonio. He sat pretty at the head of the field for most of Practice before being pushed back to third late on. The #49’s best lap time was set towards the end of a stint, showing that he doesn’t just have one-lap pace but right throughout his runs. He was the same in FP1.
Making it three manufacturers and four teams in the top four, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) set his fastest lap of the session on his penultimate lap, 0.659s off Bezzecchi’s time but that making him pretty close to Diggia and Marc Marquez. Brad Binder took P8 to move directly into Q2, threading a lap together to leap up the timesheets later in the session.
Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) clinched sixth, not the position he got used to in 2025, and was just ahead of Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) who was Honda’s top representative after a session with plenty of late turnover in a final shuffle.
Despite looking strong in P4 in the morning and bagging himself P9 and a Q2 spot, Ai Ogura’s (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) session ended early with just over two minutes remaining as he fell at Turn 7. He was all OK and will hope to redeem himself in the pole shootout on Saturday morning, where he’ll definitely also be joined by Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR) as the final automatic graduate.
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Two more riders will now join them from Q1, with Bagnaia most in the spotlight as qualifying goes green on Saturday morning.
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