MotoGP 2026

Round Four – Jerez – Friday

Alex Márquez sets MotoGP pace at Jerez

Alex Márquez made an emphatic start to the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at Jerez, topping Friday Practice with a 1m35.704s on the Gresini Ducati. That put him more than three-tenths clear of Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Marco Bezzecchi third for Aprilia and Marc Márquez fourth on the factory Ducati. The top ten was covered by 0.655s, while the cut for direct Q2 passage was particularly brutal, with Joan Mir missing out by just 0.027s.

The sub-30-degree track temperature was well below what MotoGP usually encounters at Jerez, helping the 4423-metre circuit offer more grip than is typical at this venue. This is the 40th consecutive year Jerez has hosted a GP, and the 41st GP at the venue overall, including the two 2020 races.

Alex Márquez’s lap was within a tenth of the all-time Jerez MotoGP lap record, held by Fabio Quartararo at 1m35.610s, and it was also comfortably underneath the previous best race lap mark at the venue. His pace was not just a single-lap flash either. The Gresini rider had been competitive from the outset, starting with a familiar 2025 base setting and building from there. After a muted opening three rounds by his own expectations, Friday at Jerez looked like a useful reset. Alex won here in 2025 for his maiden MotoGP victory and is scheduled to make his 250th GP start this weekend.

Fabio Di Giannantonio continued his strong early-season form by ending the day second for VR46. He had topped FP1 and spent much of the afternoon near the head of the order, eventually stopping the clock at 1m36.037s. His own assessment was that he had never previously had “this much speed”, although he still pointed to work to do with the new tyre. Team-mate Franco Morbidelli showed encouraging pace earlier in the day, second in FP1, but ended Practice 14th, just 0.083s outside the automatic Q2 places.

Aprilia puts four RS-GP26 bikes straight into Q2

Aprilia arguably had the strongest collective showing of the day, with all four full-time RS-GP26 riders making it into Q2. Bezzecchi was third on 1m36.210s, Ai Ogura fifth, Francesco Bagnaia sixth, Raúl Fernández seventh, Fermín Aldeguer eighth, Jorge Martín ninth and Enea Bastianini tenth, completing the Q2 cut. Aprilia had not put four bikes straight into Q2 since Aragón 2024, making this a notable Friday for the Noale marque. Aprilia has never won a MotoGP race at Jerez, and its best result at the venue is third.

Bezzecchi’s result was particularly important given Aprilia’s struggles at Jerez last year, while Martín salvaged ninth despite a Practice crash at Turn 13. He escaped unhurt, but will carry a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix after dangerous slow riding.

Bezzecchi has won the last five GPs and is chasing a sixth straight GP win, something only Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez have achieved in the modern MotoGP era.

Trackhouse also made a significant contribution to Aprilia’s Friday. Ogura was fifth on 1m36.248s, despite admitting he initially needed to reacclimatise to the MotoGP bike after training in Japan on 600- and 1000-cc machinery during the break. Ogura has been linked to a Yamaha MotoGP seat for 2027.

Raúl Fernández was seventh, only 0.034s behind Ogura, and sounded especially encouraged by both his pace and the changes made for the time attack. It was the first time this season that Trackhouse placed both riders inside the Friday top ten.

Ducati depth evident as Bagnaia recovers from early turn one tumble

Ducati’s presence remained heavy at the front. Marc Márquez was fourth, 0.523s from his brother’s benchmark, while Bagnaia recovered from a Turn 1 crash on his first Practice lap to secure sixth. Bagnaia’s day was therefore compromised, particularly as the fall prevented him from properly evaluating a set-up direction also used by Alex Márquez, but direct Q2 passage keeps his weekend on course, and the Italian is a three-time winner at this venue.

Marc Márquez still does not look completely comfortable, and suggested that a podium at Jerez this weekend would be a difficult target. A Marc win on Sunday would be his 100th GP victory across all classes, putting him with only Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi in that group.  A win for Marc Márquez or Bagnaia would be the Ducati Lenovo Team’s 100th MotoGP victory.

Aldeguer’s Friday was also noteworthy, making it five Ducati bikes inside the top eight. The rookie admitted the morning had been more complicated than expected, but steady progress through the day earned him direct passage to Q2. Given his limited MotoGP mileage and the fact that he is still not at 100 per cent physically, eighth was a strong result.

Ducati has won the last four Spanish GPs at Jerez: Miller in 2021, Bagnaia from 2022-24, and Alex Márquez in 2025. Friday suggests that run could continue, with Alex, Di Giannantonio, Marc, Bagnaia and Aldeguer all inside the top eight but Aprilia are going to make them work for it…

Honda close but left to fight through Q1

Honda’s Friday was better than the raw classification suggests. Joan Mir and Johann Zarco missed the Q2 cut by a whisker. Mir’s combined ideal sectors were good enough for fourth, but the issue was putting the lap together. Both factory Hondas showed promising longer-run pace, while Zarco had been inside the top five at stages before struggling to extract the final margin from the soft tyre in the time attack.

KTM factory riders miss direct Q2 as Bastianini sneaks through

Pedro Acosta faces Q1 for the first time this season after finishing 15th, while Brad Binder was 16th. Acosta also had a significant moment at Turn 6 while pushing behind Binder. KTM’s best result came from Enea Bastianini, who put the Tech3 bike into the final automatic Q2 slot in tenth. Bastianini also shared the session’s highest recorded top speed with Bezzecchi, at 300.8 km/h, suggesting the KTM still has straight-line strength even as the factory riders are chasing lap times.

Yamaha leans into development as Miller logs heavy mileage

Yamaha endured a difficult day across its factory and Pramac entries. Fabio Quartararo was the top Yamaha in 17th, 1.048s from Alex Márquez. Toprak Razgatlıoğlu was 18th, Diogo Moreira 19th, Jack Miller 20th and Álex Rins 21st, with Augusto Fernández 23rd as a Yamaha wildcard focused on testing and data gathering. The Yamaha men all pointed to development rather than outright Friday performance, with a new chassis, engine, aero, and other components being evaluated ahead of the important post-race Jerez test on Monday.

Jack Miller completed 42 laps across the day and was relatively positive about a different chassis direction, but said mistakes on his time attack and limited top speed from an older engine hurt his final position. Miller is one of the few current riders with a MotoGP win at Jerez, having won there in 2021, and he also had his only KTM GP podium at the circuit in 2023.

Razgatlıoğlu again pointed to turning and grip as key limitations, while Quartararo was blunt that Yamaha remained too far from the top times despite favourable conditions. While Toprak has never raced MotoGP at Jerez, but he has 12 WorldSBK podiums there, including three wins, and clinched his third WorldSBK title at the venue in 2025

Alex Rins tested rear aero and plans to continue with it through the weekend and Monday’s test. The Spaniard has declared himself a free agent for 2027 after being told by Yamaha that his services will not be required next season.

Diogo Moreira’s first MotoGP Friday at Jerez ended 19th for LCR Honda. He was 13th in the morning but struggled to fully understand the tyre behaviour in the afternoon time attack. Still, he and the team identified clear areas to improve before Q1.

Fallers

The falls report recorded only two MotoGP crashes during Practice: Bagnaia at Turn 1 at 15:02 and Martín at Turn 13 at 15:32. Martín had also fallen earlier in FP1 at Turn 3. Across all classes, there were 10 Friday falls at Jerez, compared with 18 on Friday in 2025 and just two in 2024.

The stage is now set for a high-pressure Q1, with Acosta, Binder, Mir, Zarco, Marini, Morbidelli, Quartararo, Razgatlıoğlu, Miller and Rins all outside the automatic Q2 places. Given the narrow margins on Friday, several riders with front-half race pace will be fighting for only two remaining Q2 spots on Saturday morning.

Jerez MotoGP Friday Practice Times

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MotoGP Rider Quotes

Alex Marquez – P1

“Since this morning, I’ve felt good. We started the day with the 2025 setup, and things were immediately easy. We tried many things, we were quick in testing, and these are positive signs. We needed a day like this after the first three GPs that weren’t so good. In terms of confidence, this Friday gave us a nice boost, but tomorrow everything can change, so we need to stay focused.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P2

“I’m very happy, because I’ve never had this much speed before. I’m very proud of this package, which is very strong. Of course, we can still improve because we struggle a bit with the new tyre, but we’re working hard on that. There’s still work to do to be the fastest, but the feeling is excellent, and we achieved today’s goal, which was to secure direct access to Q2. Now the goal for tomorrow is to get onto the front row, which is the best starting position to try to win the race.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P3

“Overall, it was a good Friday. It is always important to secure direct access to Q2. I am fast, but not yet as fast as I would like to be. In any case, the start beat expectations, considering the difficulties we encountered on this track last year.”

Marc Márquez – P4

“I’m happy with how this Friday went. We completed the work programme and managed to secure direct access to Q2, which was not a given considering how tight the session was at the end. We still need to keep working and make a step forward ahead of qualifying and the race. My physical condition is OK, but I need to focus on my riding style to keep improving. The reference at the moment is Alex (Márquez), both in terms of single-lap performance and race pace, but in any case we’ll keep following our direction with the goal of doing well.”

Ai Ogura – P5

“Another top 10 on Friday, so I’m happy. The plan was to keep the same set of tires for all the session this morning and then the afternoon session was just the time attack. Basically, I worked only on the soft tire. This morning, after I trained more than three weeks in Japan with my 600cc and my 1000cc, the position was completely different and also the feeling – I kind of lost my feeling on a MotoGP bike. So, it was quite difficult and I was worried about the day but, this afternoon was OK, the lap time OK, no big issues and we did our job.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P6

“It was a bit of an unusual day, but the potential isn’t too bad. The feeling this morning was quite good, even though we had a bit of extra rear tyre wear. We had an adjustment to try in the afternoon — the same one Alex (Márquez) used — but the lap-one crash didn’t allow me to evaluate it properly. We’ll do it tomorrow morning. In any case, it’s important that we made it into Q2. We’ll try to spend more time on track tomorrow and make a step forward; the feeling at the moment is better compared to Austin.”

Raul Fernandez – P7

“I’m really happy. We had a really positive Friday, which means it will be an easier weekend, but we have to stay calm and try to improve a little bit further. The results were quite close today, so everybody can fight for everything. We need to find some improvements on the bike and with myself and try to get better tomorrow. It would be very positive, if we could be on the first or second row. We have a pretty good pace, did a good job today – I’m happy to be in Q2 and even more happy about the pace today. For the time attack we changed some details to improve and it worked, so maybe this can also work well in the future on a single lap.”

Fermin Aldeguer – P8

“It was a complicated day because this morning I expected a much better feeling. We worked well, but there was something that wasn’t working the way I wanted. It took us a while, but in the practice session we were already more competitive. We still have very few kilometres on this bike, so making it directly into Q2 is definitely more positive than I think. Physically I’m not at my best, but we’ve improved a lot and the characteristics of the circuit also help.”

Jorge Martin – P9

“The team did an excellent job: we achieved our goal, which was to get into Q2, despite the crash. I feel good on the bike, but I struggle a little more with the soft tyre: it is mainly a matter of confidence. We need to figure out how to improve with this tyre, because it will be decisive.”

Enea Bastianini – P10

“I’m happy because for the first time this year, I’m the top KTM rider. The gaps are very close both in front of us and behind, as we often find when we get to Europe. We took a good step from this morning to this afternoon, so I’m pleased about that and we were still missing something in the fastest corners, so I hope to go even better tomorrow. Let’s see. We struggled a lot in the first two rounds of the season, but we found some good solutions last time out in Austin and lap-by-lap, I felt more and more comfortable on the bike. It has been the same here at Jerez, and I hope it continues that way through to Sunday!”

Joan Mir – P11

“I gave my 100% today to achieve the best result possible, when you put together all of my sectors, I am fourth on the times. We spent today adjusting the electronics a bit and we are very close in the longer runs. If we can find more grip, we can put everything together in a more dynamic way to end the session in a stronger position. We will keep working to be more comfortable on Saturday and Sunday.”

Johann Zarco – P12

“Today was a positive day, I was in the top five several times and managed both sessions well. The main difficulty came during the time attack, where I struggled to extract the maximum performance from the soft tyre on a single lap. I had good pace, but I wasn’t able to put everything together consistently when it mattered most. It’s a bit disappointing because we were very close, but we have room to improve and strong potential to do a solid job tomorrow”.

Luca Marini – P13

“Our overall pace is strong, and we showed that during most the session we can be towards the front, where we are lacking is in that last step for the time attack. We’re confident, we can reach 90% of our best quickly but that last 10% is taking more time and that’s where we miss on Friday afternoon. I am happy with the lap time we did, but we will need to work hard to find something more and advance out of Q1 – we have the ability to. It’s important here to maximise our Qualifying because you can help your race a lot.”

Franco Morbidelli – P14

“We worked a lot today to improve the feeling compared to the first three races. This morning we started very well and this afternoon we continued working on the bike. Unfortunately, we missed Q2 by just a few hundredths: fourteenth place isn’t ideal, but the gap is encouraging and I see it as a good step forward. Tomorrow, we can make another step if we manage to put together all the data we’ve gathered so far. I’m very confident ahead of Saturday’s qualifying. For the race, we tend to struggle more in the early stages, but then we lap at good pace as the laps go on, so I’m confident in that respect as well.”

Fabio Quartararo – P17

“Last year it was really hot, but this year the temperatures are good, so the conditions were good today. We tried a different chassis. Unfortunately, we are far from the top times. Of course, we always want to try our best, so we’ll keep working.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu – P18

“As always, I‘m pushing my best and trying to ride at the limit, but today we had a couple of issues — especially with the bike not turning as well as we‘d like and a lack of grip. If we can improve these areas, I think we can find a bit more lap time tomorrow. I can see some progress compared to the last races, but honestly I‘m still not happy because our position is quite far from where I want to be. I know this is a learning season for me and the bike is still at the beginning of its development, but sometimes it‘s not easy to stay fully positive. Still, we keep working and I will give my best again tomorrow.”

Diogo Moreira – P19

“I’m quite pleased with today’s performance, it felt like a regular Friday. It was my first time riding a MotoGP bike at this track, and while I struggled a bit, especially in the afternoon, we’ve identified a few key areas where we can improve, which is what really matters. The field is incredibly tight, and putting together a fast lap was challenging, as I didn’t fully understand the tyre behaviour. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

Jack Miller – P20

“It was a decent first day. We just missed a little bit at the end and didn‘t manage to put a clean lap together, which cost us some positions. We completed a lot of laps and worked through quite a few things, including trying a slightly different chassis, which I was happy with. I think there was a few tenths in it if we had managed to hook up the lap, but I made a couple of small mistakes and we weren‘t able to do it. We also struggled a bit with top speed today — we were using an older engine that‘s near the end of its life, so we couldn‘t extract much more from it. We should have a fresh one tomorrow, which should help. Overall, the pace is not too bad and the bike is holding the line well, especially in the faster corners. We‘ve done a lot of work today, and now we‘ll see what we can improve for tomorrow.”

Alex Rins – P21

“Today was another tough day. We didn’t ride as fast as we wanted. I tested some rear aero, some rear wings, and we need to keep working with that, and also try it in the Jerez test on Monday. But so far it was not so bad – I will keep it for the rest of the weekend. Now we will continue working on trying to benefit more of the extra grip of a new tyre.”

Lorenzo Savadori – P22

“I am pleased to see all four Aprilias in Q2. It was a positive day for me: some solutions worked better and may help us in future, others a little less so, but we are still close to the factory riders in terms of pace.”

Augusto Fernandez – P23

“It’s nice to be back racing for the first time since Valencia. I’m getting back into the pace step by step. In the end, today was not bad for me personally: I was 1s off the best Yamaha. Now I can start trying things and try to understand things better so I can give the team a proper comment for them to work with. We need to keep working. That’s why I’m here. It’s all about data, data, data, because we need to understand what the next steps should be.”

Team Managers

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Team Principal

“That was a good start here in Jerez. We managed to have both, Ai and Raul in the top 10 for the first time this year, which is very important and a good start of the weekend. So now we can work in a more relaxed way tomorrow morning, try to fine tune the last pieces and then let’s see. Let’s keep working, it was definitely a good start. Thank you to Ai, thank you to Raul, great job here. It was not easy; the gap was very close between everybody. Overall, it was a good welcome for SuperFile as title sponsor.”

Paolo Bonora – Aprilia Racing

“It is certainly a good result to have all four Aprilia riders in Q2, but we need to keep working because there are still some sectors of the track where we need to improve, both for Marco and Jorge, so that we are ready for Saturday’s sprint.”

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2026 MotoGP Championship Standings

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Moto2

Agius rewrites the Moto2 benchmark

Senna Agius produced the standout performance of Moto2 on Friday at Jerez, breaking the class lap record with a 1m38.973s to finish fastest in Practice. The Australian was the only rider to dip into the 1m38s bracket and ended the session 0.079s clear of Alonso Lopez.

Agius’ lap was a serious marker. His 1m38.973s bettered the previous all-time Moto2 lap record listed at Jerez and came on lap 13 of 20, with the Intact GP rider averaging 160.8 km/h across the 4.423 km circuit. That placed him ahead of Lopez, Barry Baltus, Collin Veijer and Daniel Holgado in a front five covered by just 0.241s.

Lopez was the closest challenger on the Italjet Gresini Kalex, stopping the clock at 1m39.052s, while Baltus backed up his FP1 speed with third in Practice on a 1m39.102s. Veijer was fourth for Red Bull KTM Ajo after briefly holding the lap record during the session, before Agius moved the benchmark on again late in the day.

Holgado completed the top five, 0.241s from Agius, and also topped the Moto2 speed trap at 252.3 km/h, suggesting good straight-line efficiency from the CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Kalex. Izan Guevara was sixth and the leading Boscoscuro rider, ahead of Daniel Muñoz, Mario Aji, David Alonso and championship leader Manuel Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, who has been one of the key early-season references, finished tenth, 0.433s away from team-mate Agius. That is close enough to remain well in contention, but it also gives Agius a clear psychological edge inside the Intact GP garage heading into qualifying.

David Alonso’s ninth place was a useful recovery after a heavy FP1 crash at Turn 13. The falls report also recorded FP1 incidents for Deniz Öncü at Turn 9 and Adrian Huertas at Turn 12, with Huertas sent for medical checks before being declared fit.

The depth of the field was again evident. Alex Escrig, Ivan Ortola, Sergio Garcia and Celestino Vietti rounded out the automatic Q2 places in 11th through 14th, while Tony Arbolino missed the cut by 0.061s in 15th. Aron Canet was only 18th, Filip Salac 20th, Deniz Öncü 22nd and Marcos Ramirez 23rd, leaving several proven names needing to fight through Q1.

Jerez Moto2 Friday Practice Times

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Moto3

Quiles leads Spanish charge in Moto3

Maximo Quiles made the strongest possible start to his home Grand Prix weekend, topping Moto3 Practice at Jerez with a 1m44.078s. The CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar rider led David Muñoz by just 0.041s, with Valentin Perrone third for Red Bull KTM Tech3.

Quiles had already shown his hand earlier in the day and then converted that speed in Practice, setting his best time on his final lap. His 1m44.078s was enough to beat the listed best race lap at Jerez, though still outside David Alonso’s 2024 all-time lap record of 1m43.710s.

Muñoz was only 0.041s away in second, making it a Spanish one-two at the head of the field. Perrone was third, 0.247s from Quiles, ahead of Matteo Bertelle and David Almansa. Adrian Fernandez was the leading Honda rider in sixth, while Brian Uriarte, Adrian Cruces, Alvaro Carpe and Marco Morelli completed a top ten covered by 0.550s.

KTM machinery dominated the front of the classification. Nine of the top ten riders were on KTMs, with Adrian Fernandez the only Honda interloper in sixth. The pattern was also reflected in the speed figures, with Scott Ogden and Brian Uriarte sharing the highest Moto3 top speed of the day at 219.0 km/h. Ogden finished 14th in Practice despite that straight-line speed, while Uriarte converted it into seventh overall.

The automatic Q2 cut was especially competitive. Scott Ogden took the final direct Q2 position in 14th, 0.655s from Quiles, while Guido Pini missed out by 0.123s in 15th. Veda Pratama was 16th, Hakim Danish 17th and Jesus Rios 18th.

Australian Joel Kelso was 21st on the GRYD – MLav Racing Honda, 1.075s from the top after running into some problems during practice, while New Zealander Cormac Buchanan finished 22nd, 1.145s off Quiles. Both will need to progress through Q1 on Saturday.

The falls report showed a busy Friday for Moto3. Casey O’Gorman crashed at Turn 6 and Buchanan at Turn 2 in FP1, while Ruche Moodley fell at Turn 1 and Ogden at Turn 9 in Practice. Ogden was sent for medical checks and later declared fit.

Quiles will head into Saturday as the clear Friday reference, but Moto3 rarely stays orderly for long at Jerez. Muñoz is close enough to apply immediate pressure, Perrone and Bertelle are within a third, and with the top 14 separated by just over six tenths, qualifying is likely to come down to track position, slipstream timing and traffic management as much as outright pace.

Jerez Moto3 Friday Practice Times

 

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2026 MotoGP Calendar