Spanish MotoGP: Mir leads Suzuki 1-2 in opening practice on Friday

Heavy rain on Thursday evening left some damp patches on track for the start of Friday’s running at the sixth round of the 2022 campaign at Jerez, but the entire field headed out on slicks to get some laps under their belts.  

Reigning world champion Quartararo, who is twice a winner at Jerez in MotoGP, set the early pace with a 1m41.849s, which he improved eventually to a 1m39.226s 10 minutes in.  

Honda’s Marc Marquez – who said on Thursday at Jerez that HRC had “ideas” on how to fix the problems it faced last time out in Portugal – briefly went to the top of the order with a 1m39.028s.  

But Quartararo returned to top spot a few seconds later with a 1m38.780s. 

However, with just under 15 minutes of the 45-minute session gone, Quartararo’s session started to unravel when he crashed exiting Turn 13 – having seemingly touched a damp patch – and hurt his groin.  

Needing some time before returning to his Yamaha box, Quartararo did get back out on track on his second M1.  

But he would have another big moment with just under four minutes remaining coming into the Turn 9 right-hander while on a lap that was set to put him back to the top of the timesheets.  

Then on the following lap the Yamaha rider ran off track up at the Turn 5 right-hander leading onto the back straight.  

Quartararo would end the session in fifth, but just 0.245s off the pace as 19 riders were within a second of each other at the end of FP1.  

While Quartararo was having a scrappy end to his session, 2020 world champion Mir had gone top of the pile with a 1m38.422s.  

While LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez went top briefly at the end of FP1 with a 1m38.368s, Mir produced an excellent 1m38.194s to end the morning fastest of all.  

Teammate Alex Rins moved up to second with his final lap, shadowing Mir by just 0.025s, with Alex Marquez the top Honda in third ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Quartararo.  

Takaaki Nakagami was sixth on the sister LCR bike, with Brad Binder seventh on his factory team KTM ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro – who topped FP1 briefly at one stage – and the second Aprilia of Maverick Vinales.  

Jack Miller completed the top 10 on the first of the Ducatis ahead of Marc Marquez, with erstwhile championship leader Enea Bastianini 12th on his 2021-spec Gresini-run Desmosedici ahead of Francesco Bagnaia on the other factory team Ducati and Pramac’s Jorge Martin.  

Ahead of FP1, Tech 3 announced that Raul Fernandez will sit out this weekend’s Spanish GP and the post-race test on Monday due to the hand injury which ruled him out of last week’s Portuguese GP.  

Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori continues to wildcard this weekend, with Honda test rider Stefan Bradl also present.  

Both were 23rd and 20th respectively at the end of FP1.  

FP2 for the 2022 MotoGP Spanish GP gets underway at 2:10pm local time.

Spanish MotoGP - FP1 results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap
1	Joan Mir		Suzuki	1'38.194
2	Alex Rins		Suzuki	1'38.219	0.025
3	Alex Marquez		Honda	1'38.368	0.174
4	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	1'38.426	0.232
5	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	1'38.439	0.245
6	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	1'38.458	0.264
7	Brad Binder		KTM	1'38.502	0.308
8	Pol Espargaro		Honda	1'38.521	0.327
9	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	1'38.627	0.433
10	Jack Miller		Ducati	1'38.754	0.560
11	Marc Marquez		Honda	1'38.806	0.612
12	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	1'38.866	0.672
13	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	1'38.898	0.704
14	Jorge Martin		Ducati	1'38.907	0.713
15	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	1'38.979	0.785
16	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	1'38.991	0.797
17	Johann Zarco		Ducati	1'39.033	0.839
18	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	1'39.122	0.928
19	Andrea Dovizioso		Yamaha	1'39.182	0.988
20	Stefan Bradl		Honda	1'39.322	1.128
21	Remy Gardner		KTM	1'39.700	1.506
22	Luca Marini		Ducati	1'39.749	1.555
23	Lorenzo Savadori		Aprilia	1'40.035	1.841
24	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	1'40.065	1.871
25	Darryn Binder		Yamaha	1'41.352	3.158
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