Catalunya Friday round up – MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE

MotoGP 2023

Round 11 – Catalunya

MotoGP Friday Practice

Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has set the stage for a potential stunner at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya!

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) had the bit between his teeth in Practice as he put down a stunning 1:38.686 to lead the field by 0.362s on his home hunting ground. His Aprilia team-mate Maverick Viñales made it an Aprilia 1-2, pulling off quite a save on his way to second overall. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) was in hot pursuit however, as he kept the Noale manufacturer in his sights, finishing 3rd but just 0.013s shy of Viñales.

With Friday afternoon’s Practice session deciding who goes through to Q2, the riders spent the majority of the session working on their race packages before turning up the wick for their late time attacks.

The top 10 go through to Q2, and it was a mad rush as the soft tyres went in with fifteen minutes to go. The times then really began to tumble and it was a late charge in the final moments that saw Aleix Espargaro crush the hearts of his competitors as he became the first rider of the weekend to put down a 1:38s lap – a new record.

Both Bagnaia and Viñales spent their fair share on the top spot as the fast laps came in from every direction, but neither could get the better of the number 41.

Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) was one of those threatening the top spots as well. Red sectors and a superb final split saw the Frenchman hit the top towards the end until he was bumped down to P4 ahead of a late-charging Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who completes the top five.

It was looking as if Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) had something up his sleeve when the soft rubber went in, but the Italian was unable to compete with the flurry of fast laps and found himself almost a second adrift of the top spot in P7, just behind Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP), who heads through to Q2 in sixth.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing MotoGP) bagged an important top 10 in P8 as he snapped up a Q2 spot. The Italian’s race pace is looking strong as well. As the clock dipped under 40 minutes remaining, the Gresini rider had been sat at the top of the timing screens with a strong run of low 1:40s.

The final two Q2 spots went to the two riders who were scrapping it out last season for the 2023 factory Ducati ride. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing), who finished in 9th and 10th respectively. Bastianini will be content with a good sign of progress whilst Martin will be hoping for more on Saturday…

It’s anyone’s guess as to who will take the top two spots in Q1. Pol Espargaro (GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3) was the first to miss out after finishing Practice in P11. The local rider – from Granollers right next to the track – will be eager to join his brother in Saturday’s Q2 session.

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It won’t be an easy task, however, as he’ll have to compete with the likes of Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) whose final run on Friday was spoiled by yellow flags.

The two CryptoDATA RNF Aprilias of Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, as well as Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) are also in the Q1 mix.

The struggles continued for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team-mates Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, as well as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and his team-mate Joan Mir as all failed to make the top 15.

MotoGP Friday Practice Results

MotoGP Friday FP1 Resuts

MotoGP Riders

Aleix Espargaro – P1

“We know that it’s only Friday, but being the fastest, with the track record, is undoubtedly an outstanding way to begin the weekend. I’m also pleased with the speed demonstrated in both sessions. The RS-GP works really well here and I’m having fun. In any case, it won’t be an easy weekend, especially on Sunday – it will be a long race. This is a demanding track in terms of grip, so both tyre choice and tyre management will be crucial.”

Maverick Vinales – P2

“I’m very happy with the way the day went and how I rode and I’m also pleasantly surprised at the pace we were able to maintain from the very first laps. My feeling has been outstanding for a few races now and I feel good with the bike, so that allows me to work effectively on the setup. However, we need to keep our feet on the ground – it’s only Friday. Our rivals are not far off and they will improve. But I’m confident that if we continue to give one hundred percent, we’ll certainly be battling for the top spots in qualifying tomorrow.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P3

“I’m happy with the turnaround we made today, We just needed to change the rear tyre, and the bike started to work again like always. We made a good step in terms of traction on the corner exit, which is where the Aprilias make the difference. It will be important to understand well in the morning the rear tyre for the Sprint race and where we can close the gap. Tomorrow, it will be difficult to beat Aleix and Maverick, but I will try for sure, while for the long race, I think our pace is similar to theirs.”

Brad Binder – P4

“Priority number one today was to get myself straight through to Q2. That was obviously the main goal so I’m happy heading into tomorrow.”

Alex Marquez – P6

“I struggled today… the goal has been achieved, but this is the only positive note from today as I didn’t find the feeling I was hoping for. It’s a track I like a lot, but we didn’t have fun on the bike today. Fortunately, we’re in Q2 and tomorrow morning we’ll have the chance to focus on the feeling with bike. In any case this was our work plan today, now we need a step forward in order to be competitive in qualifying as well as in the sprint race.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P7

“Overall I’m happy with this first day on the track in Barcelona, especially with the pace. This morning I used the session to work on the rhythm with used tyre. In the afternoon however, we focused more on accessing into Q2. The Aprilia are really very competitive, while we suffer from little grip at the rear and no traction. The sensations on the long run are good, while on the time attack we need to work. We continue to work to achieve a good result in qualifying and then in the Sprint.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P8

“It’s only Friday, but it’s been a very positive day in which we reaped what we have been deserving for a few races now. The feeling with the bike is good and now we need to confirm the good feeling and turn it into good results tomorrow. I can’t wait to get back on track.”

Enea Bastianini – P9

“In general, I’m quite happy about my day, I’m in Q2, which is important. This morning my pace was quite good, but this afternoon I struggled a bit more with the used tyre. I am competitive and my lap time was good, but the problems remain the same. I’m sure that with the new tyre in the time attack, we can do something better tomorrow because today I wasn’t perfect, I made some mistakes. Every session we are making a step forward, I understand the area to work on, so I am confident for tomorrow.”

Pol Espargaro – P11

“Of course I am a little bit disappointed because I missed Q2 by so little. We were doing a great job today, and with twenty minutes to go in Practice, I was already P11, so there was potential. We had small issues on the bike, and I am sure that if we had not had them, we could have been on the good side of the table. Tomorrow we will need to go again and push.”

Jack Miller – P12

“Tricky conditions as always here in Barcelona providing a tough day on track but as always we’re working hard to better what we have! We’ll be going the long way round tomorrow through Q1 which we’ll be ready for.”

Raul Fernandez – P13

“Honestly, today was really good. We were working with a new clutch to try and improve our start. Aprilia gave me something to try and I liked it at the beginning, but when I was riding, I had a lot of vibration and I couldn’t ride the bike. I had to stop a couple of times in FP1, and in FP2, we prepared both bikes with different clutches, I tried in one lap but had to stop due to the vibration. I was really close to Q2 and had a really good time, but I couldn’t push much with the vibration and then I saw the yellow flag. We will work on preparing the bikes for tomorrow to not have any issues and try to go faster.”

Miguel Oliveira – P14

“I had a great day except for the last 10 minutes of the time attack. I’m really ashamed that we couldn’t improve enough, but I’m sure we will together with my team work on the bike tomorrow morning before Qualifying for us to try and get the chance to get into Q2 and be as fast as we can.”

Luca Marini – P15

“A pity about the afternoon session: I had to give up on my last attempt because I had a problem with the bike. I’m sorry, in the last run I was very fast and could have approached the Top10. We miss perhaps 2/3 tenths on the pace, even compared to Pecco and Johann who were very fast with the medium on the rear. In view of the race we still have to work, the choice and management of tires will be crucial. Compared to the other tracks, we have to be careful not to stress either the rear or the front. We have to take care of every aspect of riding. Tomorrow it won’t be easy to get through to the Q2, we’ll try, the rivals are very fierce and with the Aprilia it won’t be taken for granted.”

Augusto Fernandez – P16

“It was hot here today in Barcelona, we had a low grip but I am pretty happy with how we started the weekend, much better than Austria because we were competitive from FP1. We don’t miss much to be in the top 10, so I am feeling positive about this, because we have margin to improve tomorrow.”

Fabio Quartararo – P17

“It was difficult day. But last year the Friday was also difficult. Not as much as today, though. Basically, we tried medium, soft, hard-medium. We tried a bit of everything, but we‘re struggling with rear grip, I‘m overbraking a bit too much, and I struggle with the front. We wanted to try too hard, but the problem is that we don‘t have traction. We need to understand why. Especially because this morning I had a good pace on the first five laps. After that the front tyre was destroyed, but as soon as the temperature goes up and the grip is a little bit less, we struggle a lot.”

Franco Morbidelli – P18

“We were able to do a decent job this morning, but this afternoon we struggled a bit more straight away. Then in the time attack, unfortunately, I was not able to put everything together, and I caught a yellow flag on my fastest lap. Anyway, I would have been 0.3s out of a direct entry into Q2, so that‘s unfortunate. We have been struggling more on the time attack side than we have been with the pace.”

Marc Marquez – P19

“Today was about focusing on ourselves, I didn’t feel bad on the bike. In the morning I made the same mistake as in Austria when I was comparing the new parts, especially with aerodynamics the bike changes a lot. In the afternoon we worked on our base and our pace, I feel good but we are far from the top. Tomorrow the objective is to achieve our best and keep working.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P20

“The situation is difficult for everybody; we are trying our best with our package, but today has been demanding. Somehow, we struggle when looking for the grip, and we all are working hard to take steps to be ready for the Sprint and the race on Sunday”.

Iker Lecuona – P21

“Despite the position on the timesheets, I’m happy because I can keep the speed and the pace of the other Hondas, and this is positive. My mission this weekend is to help the team as much as possible; that’s the goal. We’ve struggled with the grip and are trying to find the solution to take a step forward”.

Joan Mir – P22

“We were expecting it to be difficult this weekend because Montmelo is a circuit that’s always very critical for grip, the corners are very long and you need to manage the spin with the throttle. This year, this is the area we have been working on the most so we have to keep working on that here as well. I spent the day working on the setup of the bike. The goal for tomorrow is to improve the feeling so we can push more.”

MotoGP Championship Points

Moto2 Friday Practice

Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) topped the timesheets on Day 1 of the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya as his 1:44.804 proved he’s back to his brilliant best. The margins were amazingly close, however, and just 0.002s back comes Championship leader Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed Up) is in hot pursuit on Day 1 in third, with Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40) fourth but still just 0.058s off the top.

Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team) made a big step to top Practice 2 and jumped up to the top 5 on combined times. Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team) was one of many who struggled to improve as the temperatures rose in Practice 2, but did consolidate P6 thanks to his P1 time. Three afternoon improvers are up next: Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo), Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) and rookie Sergio Garcia (Pons Wegos Los40).

Jake Dixon (Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team) rounded out the top 10 ahead of title contender Tony Arbolino (Elf MarcVDS Racing Team), with Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) pipping 2022 Barcelona winner and winner last time out Celestino Vietti (Fantic Racing). Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools Speed Up) is currently on to pick up the final Q2 spot.

Moto2 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto2 Championship Points

Moto3 Friday Practice

It’s advantage Jaume Masia (Leopard Racing) as Moto3 conclude Friday’s action at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya. The Spaniard’s stellar 1:48.300 was set on his final lap of Practice 1 and remained untouched as he sat almost half a second clear of the field. Ivan Ortola (Angeluss MTA Team) made big strides as he found half a second to top Practice 2 and slot himself into 2nd place on the combined practice times. Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) is also showing good form at a circuit he’ll know well from his time in the FIM JuniorGP. The Dutchman put in a solid lap in P2 to put himself into 3rd place.

Whilst Masia was in a league of his own, the rest of the grid was locked together in the usual Moto3 fashion. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was just 0.040s away from the top three and is looking in fine fettle as he bagged P4. Matteo Bertelle (Rivacold Snipers Team) also enjoyed a positive Friday to round out the top five.

Championship leader Daniel Holgado (Red Bull KTM Tech3) isn’t having it all his own way in Barcelona. Whilst the Spaniard has bagged himself an automatic Q2 spot, he sits in P9 behind Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing), Riccardo Rossi (SIC58 Squadra Corse) and Silverstone winner David Alonso (Gaviota GASGAS Aspar Team). Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) rounded out the top 10 with Ayumu Sasaki (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) taking the final provisional Q2 spot in P14 and looking for more.

Joel Kelso will have to earn promotion through to Q2 via Q1 after finishing Friday 19th on the time-sheets.

Moto3 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto3 Championship Points

MotoE Qualifying

Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team) found exactly what he needed in FIM Enel MotoE World Championship qualifying in Barcelona, taking pole for the penultimate round and turning the tables on closest challenger Mattia Casadei (HP Pons Los40) after the Italian topped practice. Andrea Mantovani (RNF MotoE Team) completes the front row, with Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE) – currently one point behind Casadei – set to start sixth.

Yellow Flags out following a crash for Eric Granado (LCR E-Team) played a key role in Q2. The Brazilian found himself in Q1 after a crash in practice but comfortably topped the session to move through into the fight for pole. As he headed out of pitlane at the start of Q2 though, he suffered a strange crash at low speed that still flipped him over the highside. Rider a little winded but ok, but out of that fight for pole – and the Yellow Flags meant no one else could improve for some time either.

Torres, who had hit early to take to the top, remained unchallenged even after the track was clear, with no one able to make any big improvements in the final couple of minutes. Still, Casadei is within a tenth, making it the top two in the standings ready to start top two on the grid. Mantovani alongside them will be looking to get in their way.

Kevin Zannoni (Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse) came through Q1 just behind Granado and heads Row 2, ahead of previous MotoE Barcelona winner Miquel Pons (LCR E-Team). Ferrari completes that second row, looking to move forward once the lights go out.

The same is true of Granado as the Brazilian was left a frustrating P10 on the grid due to that early incident, despite his Q1 lap being two-thousandths off front row speed.

MotoE Friday Combined Qualifying

Catalunya Grand Prix Schedule
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2023 MotoGP Calendar