MotoGP - GP of Catalonia: Espargaró leads FP1 in Montmeló

Aleix Espargaró led the start of his home grand prix in Barcelona with a time of 1m40.378s, completing a fast lap in the closing stages of FP1 that had been dominated, almost to its full extent, by last year’s poleman Franco Morbidelli , which was eventually relegated to second position.

Aleix’s brother, Pol , both from Granollers , a neighboring city of Montmeló , achieved the third fastest time in the first free practice of the weekend, ahead of Maverick Viñales and Johann Zarco , who was fifth.

The leader of the World Championship, Fabio Quartararo finished with the sixth fastest time, beating Miguel Oliveira and Joan Mir , who was eighth, placing all the manufacturers with one of their machines in the top 10.

Jack Miller finished ninth, closing the top 10 positions of this first practice of the weekend his Ducati teammate, Pecco Bagnaia .

Aleix’s time represents a new unofficial record for the track, since the works carried out at turn 10 of the Circuit de Barcelona have extended the length of the track from 4,627 meters to the current 4,657, making Jorge Lorenzo ‘s records obsolete in 2018 , the track record (1:40.021) and the pole (1:38.680).

The best time last year was achieved by Morbidelli with 1:38.798, winning Q2, some brands that have all been discontinued.

Highlight the 12th position of Jorge Martín in his reappearance after several races out due to injury, the 13th position of Marc Márquez or the 15th of Valentino Rossi.

Results of the FP1 of the 2021 MotoGP Catalan GP

^{(Click on ‘see results’ to enjoy the entire table)}

Cla	#	Pilot	Motorcycle	laps	Weather	Difference	Interval	Km/h
1	41	Alex Espargaro	aprilia	18	1’40,378			169,531
2	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	19	1’40.402	0.024	0.024	169,490
3	44	Pol Espargaro	Honda	19	1’40.751	0.373	0.349	168,903
4	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	24	1’40.753	0.375	0.002	168.900
5	5	Johann Zarco	Ducati	19	1’40.767	0.389	0.014	168,876
6	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	20	1’40.853	0.475	0.086	168,732
7	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	18	1’40,927	0.549	0.074	168,608
8	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	16	1’40.960	0.582	0.033	168.553
9	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	20	1’40.991	0.613	0.031	168.502
10	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	18	1’41.085	0.707	0.094	168.345
see results