MotoGP: Yamaha on Top in Andalusia Day One

This weekend, the Circuito de Jerez hosts the first ever Andalusian MotoGP, and although one week on from the Spanish GP held at the same circuit, Friday practice threw up some surprises in the premier class. 

After his domination of the race last week, it might have been safe to assume that Fabio Quartararo would be somewhere near the top of the times at the end of day one. However, the Frenchman finds himself down in 14th on the combined times after the first two sessions of the weekend. No doubt, Quartararo’s race pace looks exceptional, and he will be able to find a lap in FP3 tomorrow morning, but it is nonetheless brave of the #20 to leave it until the final timed practice session to secure a Q2 spot for tomorrow afternoon. 

But it was still Yamaha who topped the combined times, with Maverick Vinales. The Spaniard looked strong all day, and combined fast one-lap speed at the end of FP1 with strong race pace in FP2 to present a formidable challenge for his rivals in view of both Saturday and Sunday. His race pace is almost identical to Quartararo’s: low-to-mid-1’38s, and that is surely the target for Vinales after finishing second to his satellite stablemate last weekend.

Second on the combined timesheets was Valentino Rossi, whose setting changes to the #46 YZR-M1 appear to have been successful. Rossi was only 0.142 seconds away from Vinales on Saturday morning, and displayed decent pace in the afternoon, lapping in the mid-1’38 range fairly comfortably. 

Brad Binder carried his impressive speed from last weekend into this, finishing third in the combined times and, like Rossi, able to lap consistently in the 1’38s, and with a tenth or two in hand, generally speaking, over the Italian. Binder was disappointed to have thrown away what could have been a podium last weekend after making a mistake in turn five early in the race, but he certainly could be a threat for the rostrum again in the Andalusian GP. 

Franco Morbidelli was fourth overall at the end of the first day, the Italian’s fastest lap coming in 0.353 slower than Vinales’. Morbidelli’s consistency looks great, too, setting numerous low-1’38s in his final FP2 run. If he is able to run those times in the race, it would put him in contention for the victory. 

Pol Espargaro rounded out the top five on his KTM, just under four tenths slower than Vinales. The Spaniard will be expecting to be in that podium fight again this weekend, as he was last. 

Miguel Oliveira ensured that the top six in combined times was split evenly between KTM and Yamaha – remarkable, as to more dissimilar bikes you will struggle to find. The Portuguese was half a tenth slower than the man he will replace next season in the factory KTM squad, Espargaro, and just under one tenth faster than Jack Miller who was seventh. Miller was, as last week, fairly anonymous in the afternoon, working on race pace that at the moment looks fairly solid around the mid-1’38 range. 

FP2 was topped by Takaaki Nakagami, who ended the day as the fastest Honda in eighth overall, ahead of Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia and Andrea Dovizioso who completed the top ten for Ducati. 

Joan Mir finished the day in 11th, just ahead of Iker Lecuona who had a crash in the afternoon at turn two but escaped unscathed. Johann Zarco was the only uninjured rider to be faster in FP2 than he was in FP1, and that time was enough for 13th fastest, having displayed reasonable race pace in the mid-to-high-1’38 range. The #5 seems to be making progress with the Desmosedici. 

14th fastest was the aforementioned Quartararo, ahead of Alex Marquez who completed the top 15, whilst Danilo Petrucci was a disappointing 16th on the factory Ducati. 

Francesco Bagnaia was only 17th overall, but FP2 was more encouraging for the Italian, who finished the afternoon session in ninth, and showed race pace in the mid-1’38 range, although inconsistently.

Tito Rabat was 18th overall, ahead of Bradley Smith and the two walking wounded out today: Cal Crutchlow and Alex Rins. Both Crutchlow and Rins improved in the afternoon but their relative lack of pace compared to the regular performance shows how tough their respective jobs are going to be this weekend. 

Below is a table displaying the lap times set in FP2, which should give some idea of riders’ relative race pace. 

Of course, the most obvious thing that jumps out is that Marc Marquez did not run on Friday at all. The Spaniard will begin his Andalusian GP weekend on Saturday in FP3 when he will decide whether he can race or not. 

Aside from that, the standout riders are those with more than ten laps in the 1’38s, those being: Maverick Vinales (14), Valentino Rossi (12), Franco Morbidelli (12), Joan Mir (12) and Fabio Quartararo (13). The pace to win last weekend was mid-1’38s by Quartararo, although already we have seen that there is more speed in the track this weekend, which makes sense since it has a weekend’s worth of rubber on it already from FP1. 

Of the riders with more than ten laps inside the 1’39 barrier, Vinales and Quartararo are, unsurprisingly, two of the fastest.

Vinales’ pace was somewhat inconsistent, but he can hit those crucial low- and mid-1’38s. He did all of FP2 on a single, medium-compound rear tyre – an unfavoured option last weekend (every rider chose the soft option rear) but was widely used today in FP2 and to good effect by many. 

Quartararo also used only one medium-compound rear tyre for the entire session in FP2, setting consistent mid-1’38s and dipping into the low-1’38s in his final two laps – laps 21 and 22 for that tyre including in- and out-laps. 

Valentino Rossi did only two runs in FP2, like Vinales, but unlike Vinales he split the tyres. On his first run, Rossi used a new hard-compound front tyre, and a four-lap-old soft-compound rear tyre. This first stint was generally in the mid-to-high-1’38s. The second run was with the same hard-compound front but with a 16-lap-old medium-compound rear tyre. The pace was largely the same with the medium rear for Rossi, but intriguingly he set his fastest lap on the final lap of that stint, with over a full race distance on that tyre. This is encouraging for Rossi. 

Joan Mir’s pace is especially impressive. His third run in FP2 saw him lap exclusively in the low-1’38s, and in his fourth run he dropped to the mid-’38s. If the Spaniard can qualify well, he could be in the frame to take his first MotoGP podium on Sunday, perhaps even the win. 

Franco Morbidelli has a similar pace, just in reverse to Mir. Instead of going from low- to mid-1’38s from one run to the next, Morbidelli’s pace got faster, ending with a series of low-1’38s at the end of FP2. He too could be in the podium, and maybe victory, fight come Sunday, but like Mir he needs to qualify well.

With 16 laps on a soft-compound rear tyre, Pol Espargaro was able to run a 1’37.889, his fastest lap of FP2. This is outstanding pace, and shows the work KTM have done with the mechanical and electronic grip of the RC16 to be able to extract that lap time from such a worn tyre. It is encouraging pace also for Espargaro, who in FP2 was generally quite inconsistent but at least able to hit the mid-1’38s. If he can dip into those ‘37s on Sunday, it could be a different kind of orange on the top step.

Brad Binder’s pace is not quite as spectacular as his teammate’s, but he is nonetheless able to stay in the mid-1’38 range with well-used tyres. Although the #33’s fastest lap in FP2 came at the beginning of the session, on his second timed lap, his final lap, on the same set of tyres, was only three tenths of a second slower than that peak, which points to a mistake-free race from Binder on Sunday putting him in the frame for the rostrum in just his second MotoGP start. 

With Marquez out until Saturday morning, it is true that we won’t have the full picture until FP4 on Saturday afternoon when conditions will once again represent those of the race. However, although there are some clear similarities with last week, it looks like there could be many more parties with the potential to fight for the top positions.