MotoGP 2022 – Round Nine
Friday Practice
Aleix Espargaro – P1
“It’s always important to start well and to find the right feeling with the bike and with the track. Obviously it’s only Friday, but Maverick and I were both competitive and that renders merit to the team’s hard work. On this track grip is really low, so tyre choice and how to manage them to the end of the race are fundamental issues. Now we’ll have to carefully analyse the spin levels and the speed on corners for each different tyre in order to make the right choices and set up the best strategy.”
“I am very, very happy and not just because of the fast lap. On this track, the true difference will be made by knowing how to manage the tyres and from this point of view, we’ve done a good job. I’m convinced that tomorrow in FP3 the times will drop even lower. When you put the new tyre on here, it almost seems like you’re riding a different bike! In any case, we’ll keep moving forward. We’re on the right track and it would be fantastic to take that last step right here, on my home track and with my fan club trackside cheering me on.”
Enea Bastianini – P3
“I’m happy with today: we started off well already this morning, even though all Ducati riders have struggled a little bit more than expected. We did very well in FP2, though. We still have to improve a bit in some areas of the circuit and with regards to race pace, but I must be happy with this Friday. We tried both the medium and the rear tyre options and I’m still not sure what I’ll choose for the race: I felt good with the medium one in FP1, while I was expecting a bit more from the hard tyre. We will have to make a good evaluation.”
Francesco Bagnaia – P4
“It wasn’t an easy day. The grip level of the asphalt is really low, and we’re working on this aspect. Although it was warmer in FP2 than this morning, we managed to make some big steps forward, and tomorrow morning the asphalt conditions should be better, so I’m confident. FP4 will be crucial to understand which tyre to use in the race. We continue to work in that direction to make another step forward before qualifying.”
Jorge Martín – P5
“I am very happy, we went well and the feeling finally seems to be back, with the old set-up I am much better. My arm didn’t hurt and I think I can be very competitive. Tomorrow I will try to give my best because being able to start at the front will be crucial.”
Jack Miller – P7
“The track is quite slippery, and I suffered most from a lack of rear grip. On the other hand, with the soft tyre, we had fewer issues, but it will still be important to have a good rhythm on the harder tyres for the race. Tomorrow we will have some work to do: we will have to get the most out of our package despite the asphalt conditions and improve our pace. The goal will always be to finish in the first two rows of the grid in qualifying”.
Alex Rins – P8
“I tried a different strategy to normal – I began with the hardest tyre on the rear and then worked my way to the medium-medium combo, which suited me well and I felt fast. I then began FP2 with this selection so that I could assess the performance in the hotter conditions, before switching to medium-soft at the end, but I didn’t really feel as good with that. However, I’m pleased with how I’ve started the weekend and my goal is to go directly to Q2 tomorrow.”
Fabio Quartararo – P9
“Today was pretty bad. These track conditions were not working well for me. When you put on a new tyre, you should be able to improve, but I couldn‘t, and the tyres dropped fast. The feeling wasn‘t good. My riding was really good, but we were still slow. We struggle with low grip conditions, we know this. But I think the track conditions will improve. Had the race been today, we would only have been able to do damage limitation, but we know that the more rubber on the track the better the grip. It‘s not going to rain, so I hope that by Sunday there‘s enough rubber to improve our pace. But I think everyone was struggling today.”
Franco Morbidelli – P10
“Today was a positive Friday for us. The feeling is much closer to what I want, and the speed is also much closer to what I want. This morning we were very fast. This afternoon we had the chance to try a long run, and in the end we managed to get into the top 10. This is positive. We‘ll keep working and improving, and let‘s see where we can arrive.”
Pol Espargaro – P11
“With the race tyre we are looking quite good, we were able to run towards the top of the time sheets. It’s honestly better than we expected. When we fitted the soft tyre, we weren’t able to improve as much as everyone else so we have some work to do overnight. Even like this we were very close so I think we can overcome it tomorrow, but you have to see what the conditions are like and what everyone is doing tomorrow. I’m quite positive about our situation for the race so we need to get inside the three rows on the grid.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P12
“This morning was good, we ended in P6, but this afternoon in hotter conditions it was a tougher session for us as there was a little lack of rear grip. But during the session we tried many things, many items and we will try to analyze the data for tomorrow. It was a good first day. We’ll try to improve the bike and my riding and then stay in the top 10 and prepare for Q2.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio – P13
“I’m happy, because we did very little modification and when that happens it means that things are going well. I have a good feeling and in the afternoon we only used one tyre because the heat wouldn’t have allowed us to set a good time anyway. I also tried the hard tyre, but we will have a clearer idea in FP4. Right now we’re working on making it into Q2 directly, which is a realistic goal.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P14
“A pretty good day: in terms of flying lap I could have done something more, but I’m happy with the pace that I managed to keep during the session also considering the temperatures. The classification penalises us a bit, but the goal is to improve in the FP3 on the time attack.”
Luca Marini – P15
“A difficult Friday even though we are all very close, both in terms of time lap and pace. With so little grip I have no feeling and even with the tires, a different compound compared to Mugello, I am struggling. Let’s analyse the data to make a step forward tomorrow.”
Joan Mir – P16
“Straight away I felt that I still had some troubles with the front end so we knew we needed to work in that area. We decided to try a few different ways to try and improve the lap times and my feeling, but we’re going to try something else tomorrow and see what happens. We’re working hard and we still feel positive because we believe that we can fix this.”
Johann Zarco – P17
“It’s a shame about the yellow flag because it wiped out my time, but I’m quite satisfied with this first day. It’s a track I like a lot and where I did very well last year. The goal tomorrow morning is to get into Q2 and then try to push hard in qualifying.”
Álex Márquez – P18
“First day here at Montmelo, a track that I love, but honestly, we are struggling. We were struggling a lot with the turning of the bike in the morning and the afternoon. I was trying to follow Aleix (Espargaro) for one lap, but he was much, much faster than us in acceleration and also turning, so it’s difficult. Tomorrow we will try to make a step to improve. We need to believe and be faster, it’s my home GP and I want to be fast for the fans.”
Darryn Binder – P20
“It has been super cool to ride here in Barcelona on the MotoGP bike and I really enjoyed the circuit on this machine. It’s been a tricky day anyway, as the grip levels are a little bit low. In FP2, I felt good on the bike overall, I feel like I’m still heading into the right direction, picking up where I left off in Mugello, so I’m very happy about that. I felt quite strong in FP2 and I’m looking forward to tomorrow to keep improving. Let’s see what happens.”
Andrea Dovizioso – P21
“We tried a different setup, which is completely strange for the Yamaha. You work a lot to create grip or you change the setup completely against the grip and nothing is different. So, we just confirmed that this area on the bike is pretty tricky. With this big change, in any case, I didn’t feel well enough to be faster, which is pretty disappointing. Let’s try again tomorrow morning, as the grip will be completely different again, so we just hope for the best.”
Michele Pirro – P22
“First of all, I would like to say that it’s good to be back in Barcelona after a long time. Regarding free practice, the main problem we encountered was related to grip. We have been working a lot since the first session trying solutions that can allow us to find a few tenths to stay close to the Top 15. I hope that tomorrow we can make that step that can allow us to be more competitive.”
Stefan Bradl – P23
“Today was about riding the bike and getting back to racing mode where you have to deliver in the moment. It has been a good day as we were able to find some improvements between this morning and this afternoon. We are also here still testing some things, so it is a busy Grand Prix already. We are in the process of building, getting faster and I hope we can make another step tomorrow.”
Raul Fernandez – P24
“We managed to do a really good FP1 this morning without having any reference on this track with a MotoGP bike, so I was quite happy. In the afternoon, we worked a lot to try to improve my feelings on the bike as we are still struggling with the pace. We continue to push and I will give my best tomorrow.”
Remy Gardner – P25
“First, it was a nice feeling hitting this circuit with a MotoGP bike. Today we focused on the race pace and worked with hard tyres in the afternoon, so we will be able to try to get the fast laps tomorrow with the soft. We have work to do tonight with all the data collected today, so we will analyse which areas we can improve ahead of qualifying day.”
MotoGP Friday Combined Times
Pos | Rider | Bke | Time/Gap |
1 | A.Espargaro | APRILIA | 1m39.402 |
2 | M.Viñales | APRILIA | +0.303 |
3 | E.Bastianini | DUCATI | +0.488 |
4 | F.Bagnaia | DUCATI | +0.548 |
5 | J.Martin | DUCATI | +0.587 |
6 | B.Binder | KTM | +0.681 |
7 | J.Miller | DUCATI | +0.693 |
8 | A.Rins | SUZUKI | +0.699 |
9 | F.Quartararo | YAMAHA | +0.721 |
10 | F.Morbidelli | YAMAHA | +0.802 |
11 | P.Espargaro | HONDA | +0.835 |
12 | T.Nakagami | HONDA | +0.854 |
13 | F.Di Giannanto Ita | DUCATI | +0.944 |
14 | M.Bezzecchi | DUCATI | +1.026 |
15 | L.Marini | DUCATI | +1.046 |
16 | J.Mir | SUZUKI | +1.248 |
17 | J.Zarco | DUCATI | +1.350 |
18 | A.Marquez | HONDA | +1.383 |
19 | M.Oliveira | KTM | +1.419 |
20 | D.Binder | YAMAHA | +1.469 |
21 | A.Dovizioso | YAMAHA | +1.541 |
22 | M.Pirro | DUCATI | +1.649 |
23 | S.Bradl | HONDA | +1.672 |
24 | R.Fernandez | KTM | +1.681 |
25 | R.Gardner | KTM | +1.928 |
MotoGP Championship Points Standings
Pos | Rider | Nat | Points |
1 | QUARTARARO Fabio | FRA | 122 |
2 | ESPARGARO Aleix | SPA | 114 |
3 | BASTIANINI Enea | ITA | 94 |
4 | BAGNAIA Francesco | ITA | 81 |
5 | ZARCO Johann | FRA | 75 |
6 | RINS Alex | SPA | 69 |
7 | BINDER Brad | RSA | 65 |
8 | MILLER Jack | AUS | 63 |
9 | MARQUEZ Marc | SPA | 60 |
10 | MIR Joan | SPA | 56 |
11 | OLIVEIRA Miguel | POR | 50 |
12 | ESPARGARO Pol | SPA | 40 |
13 | NAKAGAMI Takaaki | JPN | 38 |
14 | VIÑALES Maverick | SPA | 37 |
15 | MARTIN Jorge | SPA | 31 |
16 | MARINI Luca | ITA | 31 |
17 | BEZZECCHI Marco | ITA | 30 |
18 | MARQUEZ Alex | SPA | 20 |
19 | MORBIDELLI Franco | ITA | 19 |
20 | DI GIANNANTONIO Fabio | ITA | 8 |
21 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | ITA | 8 |
22 | BINDER Darryn | RSA | 6 |
Moto2 Friday Practice
Aron Canet (Flexbox HP 40) bounced back in style on Friday at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, taking to the top to head Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) as just 0.079 covered the top three by the end of Day 1.
Moto2 Friday Combined Times
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | A.Canet | KALEX | 1m44.450 |
2 | A.Fernandez | KALEX | +0.024 |
3 | J.Dixon | KALEX | +0.079 |
4 | S.Lowes | KALEX | +0.125 |
5 | B.Bendsneyde | KALEX | +0.282 |
6 | A.Arenas | KALEX | +0.291 |
7 | M.Schrotter | KALEX | +0.295 |
8 | J.Roberts | KALEX | +0.302 |
9 | P.Acosta | KALEX | +0.378 |
10 | A.Lopez | BOSCOSCURO | +0.412 |
11 | A.Ogura | KALEX | +0.469 |
12 | C.Vietti | KALEX | +0.512 |
13 | L.Dalla Porta | KALEX | +0.560 |
14 | F.Salac | KALEX | +0.836 |
15 | T.Arbolino | KALEX | +0.922 |
16 | M.Gonzalez | KALEX | +0.945 |
17 | F.Aldeguer | BOSCOSCURO | +0.958 |
18 | S.Chantra | KALEX | +0.974 |
19 | J.Navarro | KALEX | +1.055 |
20 | C.Beaubier | KALEX | +1.082 |
21 | B.Baltus | KALEX | +1.155 |
22 | S.Manzi | KALEX | +1.382 |
23 | A.Toledo | KALEX | +1.686 |
24 | A.Zaccone | KALEX | +1.712 |
25 | J.Alcoba | KALEX | +1.748 |
26 | M.Ramirez | MV AGUSTA | +1.879 |
27 | N.Antonelli | KALEX | +1.888 |
28 | Z.Van Den Goo | KALEX | +1.976 |
29 | S.Kelly | KALEX | +2.285 |
30 | S.Corsi | MV AGUSTA | +2.295 |
31 | P.Biesiekirski | KALEX | +2.942 |
Moto2 Championship Points Standings
Pos | Rider | Nat | Points |
1 | VIETTI Celestino | ITA | 108 |
2 | OGURA Ai | JPN | 108 |
3 | CANET Aron | SPA | 89 |
4 | ROBERTS Joe | USA | 86 |
5 | ARBOLINO Tony | ITA | 83 |
6 | FERNANDEZ Augusto | SPA | 80 |
7 | SCHROTTER Marcel | GER | 64 |
8 | CHANTRA Somkiat | THA | 61 |
9 | NAVARRO Jorge | SPA | 56 |
10 | ACOSTA Pedro | SPA | 45 |
11 | DIXON Jake | GBR | 42 |
12 | BENDSNEYDER Bo | NED | 41 |
13 | BEAUBIER Cameron | USA | 38 |
14 | LOWES Sam | GBR | 35 |
15 | ARENAS Albert | SPA | 35 |
16 | ALCOBA Jeremy | SPA | 31 |
17 | GONZALEZ Manuel | SPA | 21 |
18 | ALDEGUER Fermín | SPA | 20 |
19 | BALTUS Barry | BEL | 15 |
20 | MANZI Stefano | ITA | 9 |
21 | LOPEZ Alonso | SPA | 8 |
22 | SALAC Filip | CZE | 8 |
Moto3 Friday Practice
Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) took top honours on Day 1 at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, topping FP1 and FP2 to end Friday with a two-tenths in hand over rookie Daniel Holgado (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) was third quickest, another tenth in arrears.
Moto3 Friday Combined Times
Pos | RIder | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | I.Guevara | GASGAS | 1m48.675 |
2 | D.Holgado | KTM | +0.195 |
3 | D.Foggia | HONDA | +0.287 |
4 | J.Masia | KTM | +0.303 |
5 | T.Suzuki | HONDA | +0.392 |
6 | R.Yamanaka | KTM | +0.484 |
7 | A.Migno | HONDA | +0.513 |
8 | K.Toba | KTM | +0.655 |
9 | S.Garcia | GASGAS | +0.687 |
10 | D.Öncü | KTM | +0.698 |
11 | I.Ortolá | KTM | +0.730 |
12 | C.Tatay | CFMOTO | +0.776 |
13 | D.Muñoz | KTM | +0.793 |
14 | R.Rossi | HONDA | +0.821 |
15 | L.Fellon | HONDA | +0.936 |
16 | S.Ogden | HONDA | +0.989 |
17 | J.Kelso | KTM | +1.029 |
18 | D.Salvador | HUSQVARNA | +1.082 |
19 | M.Bertelle | KTM | +1.096 |
20 | J.Mcphee | HUSQVARNA | +1.179 |
21 | E.Bartolini | KTM | +1.401 |
22 | M.Aji | HONDA | +1.451 |
23 | S.Nepa | KTM | +1.569 |
24 | A.Fernandez | KTM | +1.724 |
25 | X.Artigas | CFMOTO | +1.810 |
26 | T.Furusato | HONDA | +1.903 |
27 | S.Azman | HONDA | +2.183 |
28 | A.Carrasco | KTM | +3.017 |
29 | J.Whatley | HONDA | +3.054 |
30 | D.Moreira | KTM | +3.626 |
31 | M.Uriarte | HONDA | +3.918 |
Moto3 Championship Points Standings
Pos | Rider | Nat | Points |
1 | GARCIA Sergio | SPA | 137 |
2 | GUEVARA Izan | SPA | 109 |
3 | MASIA Jaume | SPA | 95 |
4 | FOGGIA Dennis | ITA | 95 |
5 | SASAKI Ayumu | JPN | 75 |
6 | MIGNO Andrea | ITA | 71 |
7 | ÖNCÜ Deniz | TUR | 71 |
8 | SUZUKI Tatsuki | JPN | 54 |
9 | TATAY Carlos | SPA | 52 |
10 | YAMANAKA Ryusei | JPN | 43 |
11 | ROSSI Riccardo | ITA | 42 |
12 | TOBA Kaito | JPN | 37 |
13 | ARTIGAS Xavier | SPA | 37 |
14 | MOREIRA Diogo | BRA | 34 |
15 | HOLGADO Daniel | SPA | 28 |
16 | ORTOLÁ Ivan | SPA | 23 |
17 | BARTOLINI Elia | ITA | 21 |
18 | KELSO Joel | AUS | 18 |
19 | MCPHEE John | GBR | 15 |
20 | OGDEN Scott | GBR | 14 |
21 | BERTELLE Matteo | ITA | 13 |
22 | FERNANDEZ Adrian | SPA | 13 |
Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya
AEST Schedule
Saturday | ||
Time | Class | Session |
1700 | Moto3 | FP3 |
1755 | MotoGP | FP3 |
1855 | Moto2 | FP3 |
2035 | Moto3 | Q1 |
2100 | Moto3 | Q2 |
2130 | MotoGP | FP4 |
2210 | MotoGP | Q1 |
2235 | MotoGP | Q2 |
2310 | Moto2 | Q1 |
2335 | Moto2 | Q2 |
Sunday | ||
Time | Class | Session |
1700 | Moto3 | WUP |
1720 | Moto2 | WUP |
1740 | MotoGP | WUP |
1900 | Moto3 | Race |
2020 | Moto2 | Race |
2200 | MotoGP | Race |