The leaders Jorge Martín, Sergio García Dols and Dani Holgado finish fifth, third and fourth; Marc Márquez, third in MotoGP
MADRID, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), in MotoGP; the American Joe Roberts (Kalex), in Moto2; and the Colombian David Alonso (CFMoto), in Moto3, have been the fastest on the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, which takes place this weekend at the Jerez-Ángel Nieto Circuit, while the leaders Jorge Martín (Ducati), Sergio García Dols (Boscoscuro) and Dani Holgado (GasGas) finished fifth, third and fourth, respectively.
On a hot day and without the threat of rain, ‘Pecco’ flew over the Jerez track to destroy the track record that he himself had established in 2022. The two-time champion of the premier category stopped the clock at 1:36.025 to surpass the mark that minutes before had been set by the Spanish Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), the first to break the Andalusian Grand Prix record despite crashing on one occasion.
The man from Roses, winner of both the sprint race and the long race at the last Grand Prix of the Americas, once again demonstrated his great form at this start of the season but was overtaken in the final minutes by Bagnaia, so who had to settle for second position. Third was Marc Márquez (Ducati), the second of the seven Ducatis present in the ‘Top 10’ and, therefore, with Q2 guaranteed.
In fact, Franco Morbidelli’s -twelfth- was the only machine of the eight from Borgo Panigale not present among the top ten classifieds of the ‘Practice’, among which was a single KTM, that of the Spanish Pedro Acosta, just sixth behind the MotoGP leader, Jorge Martín (Ducati).
Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), for his part, finished seventh, and Álex Márquez (Ducati), tenth. Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa (KTM) finished fourteenth, just before Alex Rins (Yamaha), Raúl Fernández (Aprilia) was eighteenth, Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) twenty-first and Augusto Fernández (KTM), twenty-second.
In Moto2, the fastest time of the day was set by the American Joe Roberts (Kalex), whose record of 1:40.664 allowed him to finish two tenths ahead of the Boscoscuro of Fermín Aldeguer from Murcia and Sergio García Dols from Castellón, leader of the championship with two points ahead of the North American driver.
Up to seven Spaniards sneaked into a ‘Top 10’ in which Marcos Ramírez (Kalex), fourth, also entered; Manu González (Kalex), sixth; Alonso López (Boscoscuro), third overall and finished eighth; Albert Arenas (Kalex), ninth; and Izan Guevara (Kalex), tenth.
On the other hand, Jaume Masià (Kalex) and Arón Canet (Kalex) were involved in the first falls in the intermediate class, with a fatal result for the one from Corbera, who will not be able to continue running this weekend after suffering a fracture of the fibula head of the left leg.
Finally, in the small category, the Colombian David Alonso (CFMoto) set the reference time of the day by establishing a new record of 1:43.710 on the Andalusian circuit. With this, he surpassed the surprising ‘rookie’ Jacob Roulstone (GasGas) by almost a second, while the Dutchman Collin Veijer (Husqvarna) placed third.
Meanwhile, the Moto3 leader -with two points ahead of the Colombian-, the Spanish Dani Holgado (GasGas), closed the day fourth, more than a second (1:44.892) behind Alonso, and David Almansa (Honda) completed the ‘Top 5’. Also finishing in the top ten were Iván Ortolá (KTM), fourth in the championship and seventh, and David Muñoz (KTM), who finished ninth.