MotoGP riders reflect on opening day of practice at Misano – Moto2/3/E Reports/Results

MotoGP 2025

Round 16 – Misano – Day One

Marc Márquez – P1

“The start of the day wasn’t the best, as I wasn’t riding comfortably in Free Practice, despite still being quick. In the afternoon I got better lap after lap, improving both my line and my braking points. The team did an excellent job and gave me what I needed from the bike. We’re in a good place now, but we know we need to keep pushing. Coming from Montmeló, which is a circuit that requires smooth riding, here you need to be aggressive, especially under braking. There’s a lot of grip, so it was a bit more challenging to find the right feeling with the bike. But in the end, we managed it.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P2

“It was a good first day. I’m happy because I was able to perform well on both the medium rear and the soft, in the morning and in the afternoon. We clearly need to work to improve further, but for now we have an excellent base.”

Franco Morbidelli – P3

“I am really happy, it was a positive day, the speed is really good, and we were able to finish in first place in the morning and in third position in the afternoon. We are working very well and that’s the day I was hoping for. We are all really close to each other, so it’s going to be important to continue working well like we did today. The ambition is always the same, we aim to be on the podium every weekend, and now we are even in the Top 3. Valentino is here with us and there are a lot of people cheering for the team. I feel the energy of the people that came here to support us, this will give us a little boost during the weekend.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P4

“We knew that here, compared to the last two events, we would be more competitive. The Misano track offers a higher level of grip, which mitigates many of the problems we had before coming here. We took a different approach: being a track I know perfectly, I asked not to change anything on the bike. The modifications made were only small details. We were competitive both over a single lap and in terms of pace. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the third split on my second time attack, which cost me a lot of time. I’m still very happy, because being in the top ten and avoiding Q1 surely helps.”

Alex Marquez – P5

“If we look at Marc’s rhythm, we’re behind, but compared to the others, we had a good start. The feeling is good on a track which has never been among my favourites. The goal is to find consistency pace-wise and get closer to Marc. The track has a lot of grip and we’re doing some key work to be ready for Q2.”

Joan Mir – P6

“We’ve had a really positive day despite the crash. I was improving the lap time with the second tyre, but even like this we were able to make it. A little bit sore after the crash, I have quite some pain in the neck so I need to do some work with the physio tonight – we can manage it. There is still some margin to make another step tomorrow, I am aiming for the front two rows. We have even more new things for this race and straight away we were able to go faster which is a really good improvement. This is a really satisfying Friday, it’s not easy to stay in the top six when everyone is putting a lot of new tyres at the end of the day. Thanks to all of Honda HRC for their work, they keep going and keep bringing new things for us.”

Luca Marini – P7

“This weekend, the bike has been working very well and the updates we have brought all made us faster straight out of the ‘box’. I am enjoying riding, but like always we still have some things to improve to get even closer to the front. Qualifying will be tricky, but I think that our pace is getting better with every exit. Getting straight to Q2 helps, but we still need to try and find something overnight to get more from the soft rear. We have to take a moment and look at our situation, we have been making good progress in the last few races, and I think that we have done well over the last 12 months. More things to come as our objective keeps growing.”

Jorge Martin – P8

“For me, making it into Q2 was a win – not so much because of the result, but because I’m really starting to gel with the bike. In the morning, I felt comfortable right away. In the afternoon, we struggled a bit more, but I still managed to get into Q2. I am delighted, it was a good day.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P10

“I’m happy with how the weekend has started. Our race pace is really fast – today we were among the top five fastest riders. Overall, it was a positive day, especially since we’re straight into Q2. We’re still struggling a bit in the time attack, we always have too much grip, and the bike pushes hard on the front. We’re working on how to take a step forward in that area because it’s the only thing we really need to improve. In the last few races, we’ve already made some steps, and we need to keep progressing. For tomorrow, I’d like to use FP2 to work on the time attack and find solutions to bring into Q2.”

Johann Zarco – P11

“The morning was pretty tough, and we had to change the setup to get more stability. In the afternoon, I noticed the improvements, as I was able to try some aero evolutions, and that was positive. From there, I made some steps and was happy with the progress on the time attack. Tomorrow I just hope to stay calm on the bike, give the right information, and find a good balance on this track to do a strong job in the Sprint.”

Fabio Quartararo – P12

“We didn’t find a way to have good feeling today, unfortunately. Rather than lacking grip, we are experiencing some inconsistencies, and that’s why the confidence is not there. We have different feelings with different tyres, and the feeling needed to push is missing. We can’t be satisfied with finishing in P12, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Maverick Viñales – P14

“Riding on a track like Misano which is very tough physically is helping me a lot in my recovery process, and we are already feeling much stronger than in Montmelo a few days ago. There are a lot of changes of direction here, so it is challenging me, but I am very satisfied with how my body is recovering overall. The bike is very good, with strong potential, I am trying to push to the limits, but I am quite close, so I am very optimistic!”

Raul Fernandez – P15

“Today was a difficult day for me, but I have to take the positives. We had a really good pace with the medium and soft – on the first time attack, I just had a problem with the bike and I couldn’t use the first tire and with the second one, I made a mistake and crashed. For tomorrow I think we have the pace and everything to fight to go into Q2, so I will try again and give my maximum. Physically, I don’t feel so well, but I did all the checks in the medical centre, and I’m fit for tomorrow. I think it will be painful, but I don’t have anything serious.”

Jack Miller – P16

“It has been a decent Friday. The pace is there, but I just couldn‘t put it all together at the end. My ideal lap is a 31.0, my best lap—which got cancelled—was a 31.2, and the one that counted was 31.5. We are about half a second off where we should be. We managed to make improvements in a few areas of the track, and the pace felt pretty decent during the practice session. Unfortunately, I‘m in Q1 at the moment, so let‘s see what tomorrow brings. We need to try to be better than we are now.”

Enea Bastianini – P17

“The day was complicated! The bike was too nervous this morning, and it was the same feeling more or less this afternoon, especially in sector 3. At the start of Practice, I could do a few good consecutive laps with the medium rear tire, but when we tried the soft at the rear, it felt worse to be honest. Surprisingly, I also struggled at the brakes with the soft. We are far from the first 2-3 riders, so we urgently need to figure out a way to solve these small issues for Saturday, and hopefully we will see improvements.”

Fermin Aldeguer – P18

“It was a difficult day: some things worked very well and others, not at all. Q1 is always a difficult session but we have the duty to keep our heads down and try to make it into Q2. Misano has never been one of my favourite tracks but so were Le Mans and Austria, and we saw how it went there.”

Augusto Fernandez – P19

“It was a positive day – a busy one, but a positive one in the end. We had a small issue with a safety sensor in the morning, but it was nothing serious, so we could continue with the work like we had planned. It was like a test day: we made some big changes on the bike, and it worked. We didn’t know what to expect in terms of lap times going into this weekend. I was hoping to be competitive so I could have fun battling in the races this weekend, but we are here to improve the V4-Powered Prototype bike. In the end, we have both: we are competitive and are improving the feeling on the bike. I made a small mistake on the second time attack. This was the first time we did a real time attack on this bike, and I felt good on the second tyre, but I pushed too much.”

Alex Rins – P20

“Compared to other GP weekends, this was a better GP Friday. We were working quite well. In the time attack, I could have done about 0.2s better because I found many yellow flags, and I couldn’t do a time attack on the first lap – but even with these 0.2s gained, we would still have been outside the top 10. It was quite surprising that we couldn’t gain anything from the soft tyre. It was quite unstable. There’s a lot of room for improvement. It was not an easy day for us today, but let’s see how it goes.”

Ai Ogura – P21

“It was a tricky day. I expected that I could use my strong points that I felt on the Moto2 bike here but it’s completely different. In some parts of the track, I had a good timing and rhythm for the combination turns, but this didn’t work today, so I have to ride and approach it in a different way. It was quite difficult today – it takes time, I know. But tomorrow, we have FP2, Qualifying and Sprint but I just want to be ready for the main race and will try to use the other sessions, as much as I can, tomorrow. The target from now is to be ready for the race on Sunday.”

Miguel Oliveira – P22

“A very tricky day. I had two crashes in the first session that are hard to explain, especially the second one, because the front tire just gave up. The way we had set up the bike wasn‘t helping either: it was quite a nervous bike, with the front twisting a lot. In the afternoon, we tried to make a big step with one bike, but I had an electrical problem and the bike was behaving very strangely—lots of wheelies at times, then none, and the traction control was quite off. Then I jumped on the other bike and tried a time attack, but I had the same problems as in the morning and couldn‘t push. Tough day, but I expect a big improvement tomorrow.”

Somkiat Chantra – P23

“Today was a bit unusual, as it was my first time riding the MotoGP bike at Misano. The lines and speed here feel completely different, and the pace is really impressive. We focused on finding an initial setup, and in the afternoon, we managed to make some improvements. I made a few mistakes and didn’t quite reach our goal, but we’ll push again tomorrow.”

Team Managers

Paolo Bonora – Aprilia Racing

“It was definitely a positive day. We hit our target of getting both riders into Q2, thanks to strong teamwork from both during practice. We’re focusing on the final details, knowing how important it will be to start up front. Marco showed good pace with both tyres, while Jorge felt comfortable with the setup straight away, and is continuing to make progress with the bike, with positive results.”

Gino Borsoi – Prima Pramac Yamaha Team Director

“Definitely not an easy day. In some ways, if we look at the different sectors, Jack isn‘t that far from the top 10. The big problem is T1, while in the other sectors he loses little or nothing. We need to work on the first part of the track—it won‘t be easy, but we‘ll try. I‘m very sorry for Oliveira, though; we couldn‘t find an ideal setup for his bike. There were some electronic issues that prevented him from finding a good feeling with the bike. Surely, the two crashes didn‘t help, but the bike definitely wasn‘t in the right condition.”

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Aprilia Team Principal

“We didn’t manage to reach Q2 with our riders and we have some work to do. Raul had a crash and also didn’t really have a clean session. Ai tried, but we still have something to finalize on his lap pace. Anyway, we will go through the Q1 tomorrow and we try to work as much as we can tonight and keep pushing.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha Team Director

“Today’s performances offered mixed results. Fabio secured a promising result in FP1, but, overall, he’s missing the confidence he needs to work his magic during the time attack. He missed a direct Q2 entry, which was disappointing for him. Álex also experienced similar difficulties. He improved in the afternoon, though not to the extent he hoped because we weren‘t able to fully capitalise on the soft tyre like our competitors. The team will continue working this evening and tomorrow morning to identify areas for improvement. Our focus lies on optimising our performance level for qualifying and the Sprint, aiming to support both riders with the best possible set-up.”

MotoGP Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	M. Marquez	487
2	A. Marquez	305
3	F. Bagnaia	237
4	M. Bezzecchi	197
5	P. Acosta	183
6	F. Morbidelli	161
7	F. Di Giannantonio	161
8	F. Quartararo	129
9	F. Aldeguer	127
10	J. Zarco	117
11	B. Binder	95
12	E. Bastianini	84
13	L. Marini	82
14	R. Fernandez	78
15	M. Viñales	72
16	A. Ogura	69
17	J. Miller	54
18	J. Mir	50
19	A. Rins	45
20	J. Martin	29
21	M. Oliveira	17
22	P. Espargaro	16
23	T. Nakagami	10
24	L. Savadori	8
25	A. Fernandez	6
26	S. Chantra	1
27	A. Espargaro	0

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Moto2

It was the perfect start to his second home round of the season for Celestino Vietti (Beta Tools SpeedRS Team), with the Italian setting the pace on Friday at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Still chasing his first win of the year, Vietti heads into Saturday as the rider to beat — and there’d be no better place to do it than in front of the home crowd at Misano.

Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) slotted into second, while last weekend’s Catalan GP winner Daniel Holgado (CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team) continued his strong form in third.

Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) claimed fourth despite a late crash at the final corner, and Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team) bounced back from a disappointing Barcelona weekend to round out the top five.

Seann Agius was in the top five for the majority of the session before slipping to ninth in the final rush.

It was a tougher day for Aron Canet (Fantic Racing Lino Sonego), who sits second in the championship but could only manage 15th. He’ll now have to fight his way through Q1 on Saturday if he wants a shot at the front rows.

Misano Moto2 Practice Times

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap	Speed
1	C. Vietti	Bos	1m34.650	249.4
2	M. Gonzalez	Kal	+0.097	247.1
3	D. Holgado	Kal	+0.205	248.2
4	J. Dixon	Bos	+0.276	246.5
5	D. Moreira	Kal	+0.319	246.5
6	A. Arenas	Kal	+0.390	248.8
7	Z. Vd Goorbergh	Kal	+0.393	246.5
8	I. Guevara	Bos	+0.411	247.7
9	S. Agius	Kal	+0.419	248.8
10	B. Baltus	Kal	+0.517	244.3
11	A. Lopez	Bos	+0.523	247.7
12	F. Salac	Bos	+0.529	248.2
13	D. Alonso	Kal	+0.556	248.8
14	A. Huertas	Kal	+0.588	247.7
15	A. Canet	Kal	+0.631	246.0
16	A. Sasaki	Kal	+0.746	248.2
17	D. Muñoz	Kal	+0.758	246.5
18	I. Ortola	Bos	+0.770	248.2
19	T. Arbolino	Bos	+0.922	248.8
20	M. Ramirez	Kal	+0.934	248.2
21	J. Roberts	Kal	+0.955	243.7
22	A. Escrig	For	+1.026	243.7
23	J. Navarro	For	+1.098	246.5
24	M. Aji	Kal	+1.146	245.4
25	D. Binder	Kal	+1.355	247.7
26	C. Veijer	Kal	+1.371	247.7
27	U. Orradre	Bos	+1.553	246.5
28	A. Ferrandez	Bos	+1.677	245.4
29	A. Surra	Kal	+2.111	245.4
30	Y. Kunii	Kal	+2.353	244.8

Moto2 Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	M. Gonzalez	217
2	A. Canet	179
3	D. Moreira	175
4	B. Baltus	153
5	J. Dixon	152
6	C. Vietti	116
7	D. Holgado	112
8	D. Öncü	100
9	A. Arenas	96
10	S. Agius	93
11	M. Ramirez	92
12	J. Roberts	84
13	F. Salac	79
14	D. Alonso	76
15	I. Guevara	73
16	A. Lopez	67
17	I. Ortola	47
18	T. Arbolino	46
19	C. Veijer	39
20	D. Muñoz	19
21	Z. vd Goorbergh	18
22	A. Huertas	16
23	D. Binder	12
24	A. Sasaki	11
25	A. Escrig	10
26	M. Aji	8
27	O. Gutierrez	4
28	S. Garcia	3
29	J. Navarro	3
30	Y. Kunii	0
31	E. Fernandez	0
32	N. Atiratphuvapat	0
33	T. Hada	0
34	U. Orradre	0
35	M. Pasini	0

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Moto3

David Almansa and Adrian Fernandez delivered a dream 1-2 for Leopard Racing on Friday at Misano, with Almansa a clear standout. His 1:40.596 lap was the only time under the 1:41 barrier and put him 0.498s clear of the field heading into Saturday.

Joel Kelso (LEVEL-UP MTA) continued his sharp form to slot into third, giving Australian fans plenty to cheer about.

Joel Kelso – P3

“I’m happy with the base we have this Friday. The feeling with the bike is good, especially on race pace, and the time attack confirmed we’re competitive. There are still areas where I can improve, so tomorrow I’ll try to make another step to stay at the front.”

Behind them, rookie Valentin Perrone (Red Bull KTM Tech3) impressed in fourth, just ahead of championship leader Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in fifth.

Maximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) set the sixth fastest time, with Barcelona podium finisher Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) close behind.

Jacob Roulstone split the afternoon session into two runs for the Aussie, with the focus being on working out with the used tyres on the first run. Jacob ended the day eighth quickest and can sleep safe in the knowledge that he is straight into Q2 on Saturday.

Jacob Roulstone – P8

“Quite happy with today’s effort. We worked well this morning to get up to speed. Then, in the afternoon, we started with used tyres and I managed to get a decent pace at the start, although I was a bit surprised by the drop off at the end. In the time attacks, I felt really good, I was happy with how I was riding, and I think that we have a really good setup heading to tomorrow and the rest of the weekend.”

Angel Piqueras (FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI), who has been confirmed to be stepping up to Moto2 in 2026, scraped into the provisional Q2 places in 12th.

It was a tougher session for rookie Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo), who was sidelined by bike issues and will now have to fight his way through Q1 on Saturday.

Misano Moto3 Practice Times

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap	Speed
1	D. Almansa	Hon	1m40.596	210.5
2	A. Fernandez	Hon	+0.498	208.4
3	J. Kelso	KTM	+0.514	209.7
4	V. Perrone	KTM	+0.518	210.9
5	J. Rueda	KTM	+0.623	207.6
6	M. Quiles	KTM	+0.676	210.1
7	T. Furusato	Hon	+0.707	208.4
8	J. Roulstone	KTM	+0.736	208.4
9	D. Muñoz	KTM	+0.757	210.9
10	R. Yamanaka	KTM	+0.770	211.7
11	G. Pini	KTM	+0.797	207.6
12	A. Piqueras	KTM	+0.999	211.7
13	D. Foggia	KTM	+1.105	209.3
14	S. Ogden	KTM	+1.110	211.3
15	L. Lunetta	Hon	+1.164	207.2
16	N. Carraro	Hon	+1.213	211.3
17	E. O’Shea	Hon	+1.588	208.8
18	R. Moodley	KTM	+1.630	209.7
19	C. Buchanan	KTM	+1.643	210.5
20	M. Uriarte	KTM	+2.180	210.1
21	R. Rossi	Hon	+2.250	206.5
22	S. Nepa	Hon	+2.356	207.6
23	E. Belford	Hon	+2.406	208.0
24	A. Aditama	Hon	+2.629	206.5
25	A. Carpe	KTM	+2.842	209.3
26	N. Dettwiler	KTM	+3.073	205.3
27	M. Ruda	Hon	+3.517	205.3

Moto3 Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	J. A. Rueda	270
2	A. Piqueras	206
3	M. Quiles	168
4	D. Muñoz	163
5	A. Carpe	149
6	J. Kelso	132
7	T. Furusato	103
8	D. Almansa	101
9	A. Fernandez	100
10	V. Perrone	98
11	R. Yamanaka	97
12	D. Foggia	81
13	L. Lunetta	68
14	G. Pini	61
15	S. Ogden	42
16	J. Roulstone	42
17	M. Bertelle	40
18	S. Nepa	37
19	C. Buchanan	27
20	R. Rossi	24
21	N. Carraro	24
22	M. Uriarte	22
23	A. Cruces	13
24	R. Moodley	11
25	V. Perez	7
26	J. Esteban	7
27	M. Morelli	3
28	C. O’Gorman	3
29	T. Buasri	1
30	N. Dettwiler	0
31	E. O’Shea	0
32	J. Rosenthaler	0
33	L. Phommara	0
34	L. Abruzzo	0
35	A. Aditama	0
36	M. Cook	0

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MotoE

After his pole in Barcelona, Eric Granado (LCR E-Team) bagged another P1 in qualifying ahead of Alessandro Zaccone (Aruba Cloud MotoE Team) and Andrea Mantovani (KLINT Forward Factory Team). Both return to the front row, which is covered by less than a tenth of a second.

Behind them, Nicholas Spinelli (Rivacold Snipers Team MotoE) heads up the second row of the grid ahead of fellow countryman Nicholas Spinelli (Felo Gresini MotoE) and Q1 graduate Jordi Torres (Power Electronics Aspar Team).

The main drama, however, was that Championship leaders Mattia Casadei (LCR E-Team) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Dynavolt Intact GP) crashed; Casadei went down on his out-lap in Q2, whilst ‘Balda’ crashed on his first flying lap in Q1. Both start 10th and 13th on the gri,d respectively.

Misano MotoE Combined Qualifying

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap	Speed
Q2
1	E. Granado	Duc	1m40.030	228.8
2	A. Zaccone	Duc	+0.026	227.3
3	A. Mantovani	Duc	+0.084	227.3
4	N. Spinelli	Duc	+0.306	226.8
5	M. Ferrari	Duc	+0.398	228.8
6	J. Torres	Duc	+0.442	228.3
7	H. Garzo	Duc	+0.591	228.8
8	K. Zannoni	Duc	+0.660	229.7
9	A. Finello	Duc	+1.649	226.8
10	M. Casadei	Duc	1m40.494	–
Q1
11	L. Bernardi	Duc	+0.997	226.4
12	J. Hosciuc	Duc	+1.108	225.9
13	L. Baldassarri	Duc	+1.333	226.8
14	O. Gutierrez	Duc	+1.343	229.7
15	M. Herrera	Duc	+1409	232.2
16	T. Varga	Duc	+1.417	230.7
17	R. Fusco	Duc	+1.686	229.7
18	T. Occhi	Duc	+2.360	228.8

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2025 MotoGP Calendar

GP	Date	Location
1	Mar-02	Thai GP, Chang
2	Mar-16	Argentina GP, Termas De Rio Hondo
3	Mar-30	Americas GP, COTA
4	Apr-13	Qatar GP, Lusail
5	Apr-27	Spanish GP, Jerez
6	May-11	French GP, Le Mans
7	May-25	British GP, Silverstone
8	Jun-08	Aragon GP, Aragon
9	Jun-22	Italian GP, Mugello
10	Jun-29	Dutch GP, Assen
11	Jul-13	German GP, Sachsenring
12	Jul-20	Czech GP, Brno
13	Aug-17	Austrian GP, Spielberg
14	Aug-24	Hungarian GP, Balaton Park
15	Sep-07	Catalan GP, Catalunya
16	Sep-14	San Marino GP, Misano
17	Sep-28	Japanese GP, Motegi
18	Oct-05	Indonesian GP, Mandalika
19	Oct-19	Australian GP, Phillip Island
20	Oct-26	Malayasian GP, Sepang
21	Nov-09	Portuguese GP, Portimao
22	Nov-16	Valencia GP, Valencia

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