MotoGP Practice Summary: El Diablo is in the Detail

The first day of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship is over, and with it we can now see how the field shapes up ahead of the first race of the season in a couple of days.

The high temperatures in the afternoon meant that all of the fastest times were set in the morning, save for Fabio Quartararo whose FP1 was distorted by his sanction of missing the first twenty minutes of the morning practice.

Marc Marquez ended the day fastest, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the reigning world champion’s non-absence from the premier class podium in Jerez since his rookie year in 2013. It was also a result that went one step further to proving that Honda have figured their preseason problems out – whilst Marquez has proven in the past that he can find ways around issues presented by the RC213V even he was struggling with the behaviour of the 2020 model in the winter. The day was not without incident for Marquez, though, as he suffered a front end crash in turn two in the afternoon. It was nothing spectacular, but it is notable that he was using the hard front, like everyone else. Perhaps the hard front tyre is too soft for the Honda and for Marquez’ aggressive braking style in the final part of the corner entry, and this will be exaggerated by the extreme temperatures – 51 degrees track temperature in FP2.

Second in the combined times was Maverick Vinales, less than a quarter of a tenth of a second behind Marquez, and looking comfortable on the YZR-M1. It is encouraging for the Spaniard that he has, so far at least, been able to carry his testing form into a race weekend.

Cal Crutchlow ensured that two Hondas would populate the top three positions in the overall at the end of Friday for the Spanish Grand Prix, the Brit only 0.088 seconds away from Marquez’ fastest time. It is worth remembering, of course, that Crutchlow claimed pole position in Jerez only two years ago, and it looks like he could be in the mix for the front row tomorrow. 

One of the major surprises on Friday was the speed of Andrea Dovizioso, who looked as calm and slow as ever to finish the day fourth fastest, 0.121 seconds away from Marquez, despite his and Ducati’s poor history in Jerez, and the collarbone fracture he suffered only a few weeks ago. Even with Marquez out front, the speed he has shown on Friday will be encouraging for Dovizioso – a podium here would be a dream start for the Italian, who has never achieved a top three at Jerez before in the premier class.

The Suzuki riders suffered for one lap speed in the afternoon, which could be a worry for tomorrow considering FP2’s conditions will have been somewhat representative of tomorrow’s qualifying session. However, the morning was better for their respective one-lap speed, as Joan Mir was able to be fifth fastest, and Alex Rins seventh. Between the two GSX-RR riders was Jack Miller, who was similarly slow in the afternoon, but was able to be seventh in the morning. 

A trio of KTMs complete the provisional Q2 qualification spots ahead of Saturday morning’s FP3 session, with Pol Espargaro ahead of rookies Iker Lecuona and Brad Binder. Binder, in particular, was especially impressive in the hotter afternoon session, where he was third fastest. Even though it is notable that many riders did not attempt a true time attack in FP2 due to the track being slower than in the morning, and therefore not partial to allowing riders to improve on their times from the morning, it was an impressive run from Binder to be so fast in his first race weekend.

Johann Zarco was 11th fastest on his debut for Hublot Reale Avintia Racing and for Ducati, and the third fastest Ducati overall, less than six tenths of a second slower than Marquez. 

Trailing Zarco was what is anticipated to be the 2021 Petronas Yamaha SRT line-up, with Franco Morbidelli a disappointing 12th, and Valentino Rossi and even more disappointing 13th. Morbidelli was able to improve in the afternoon, and topped FP2 ahead of his current teammate, Fabio Quartararo. Rossi, on the other hand, suffered even more in the afternoon than in the morning, and finished only 20th in FP2. The #46 has some serious issues to overcome this weekend if he wants to fight for anything approaching respectable for a factory Yamaha rider. No matter your name, 20th fastest is not good enough for someone riding a factory M1, especially when the two satellite bikes (albeit one a factory-spec satellite bike) from the same factory are 1-2 in the same session. 

Behind Rossi in the combined standings was Takaaki Nakagami in fourteenth, then Quartararo, who as aforementioned was the only rider to be faster in the afternoon than the morning, after his enforced 20-minute delay to starting FP1. 

Aleix Espargaro suffered today, finishing 15th in both sessions and 16th overall – a surprise considering Aprilia’s preseason form, so it will be interesting to see if there is a response tomorrow morning for Espargaro to make Q2 directly.

It was a difficult first day of competitive MotoGP action for Alex Marquez, finishing 17th overall – although only 0.862 seconds slower than Repsol Honda teammate Marc Marquez. The 2019 Moto2 World Champion was just over one tenth fastest than Francesco Bagnaia, who ended the day a disappointing 19th. Improvements will be needed from the Italian, who is under pressure for results to keep his Pramac Ducati seat for 2021. 

Tito Rabat and Miguel Oliveira completed the top 20 overall, with the injured Danilo Petrucci 21st and the returning Bradley Smith 22nd and last as he tried to convert back to being a racer after spending 2019 as Aprilia’s MotoGP test rider.

Due to the higher track temperatures in the afternoon, most riders focussed on race pace and race settings exclusively in FP2. In fact, it was almost like FP4 being run one day early. Jack Miller had predicted after Wednesday’s test that race pace would be between 1’38s and 1’39s, and this seemed to be proved correct on Friday afternoon.

Below is a table to show the race pace of each of the riders, by tallying the number of laps each did in the 1’38s, 1’39s and 1’40s across FP2, since this was the session more representative of race conditions.

From the table, one rider stands out: Fabio Quartararo. The Frenchman has almost double the amount of laps in the 1’38s than any other rider. Additionally, a look at the chronology of Quartararo’s laps shows his second and third runs were made exclusively of mid-1’38s, something which even Marc Marquez can’t claim to compare to. Quartararo is the only rider currently who is able to consistently lap in the mid-1’38s, the others drift from mid-to-high-1’38s at best. 

Behind Quartararo, there is Marquez and Vinales, and Marquez looks more comfortable running in ‘38s than Vinales. 

Then there is Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizioso, who have strong pace in the 1’39s – Rins in particular can run low ‘39s with relative ease. This could be enough for a podium, but if his rivals are able to dip under the 1’39 barrier more frequently, it could be enough to keep the #42 at bay. Additionally, the Suzuki rider will need to qualify well, which was difficult for him last year and on the evidence of FP2 could also be difficult this weekend, if not across 2020 as a whole. 

At the moment, Quartararo has the edge. However, it is worth remembering that today is Friday, the points are awarded on Sunday and there is Saturday that lies between. Much can change in that time.