MotoGP Qatar, FP2: Four Aprilias at the top, Acosta offers a glimmer of hope

The second 30-minute free practice session for the MotoGP class on Saturday afternoon from 12 noon CET – Qatar is two hours ahead – gives the riders the chance to prepare for qualifying, which takes place immediately afterwards. The top 10 from Friday afternoon’s free practice session go straight through to Qualifying 2, whilst the rest must go through Q1, from which the two fastest riders then advance to Q2.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46) managed a dream lap on his Ducati during Friday’s free practice; with a time of 1:50.406, the Italian beat Marc Marquez’s lap record by a whisker.

On Saturday, the tarmac of the desert circuit just outside Doha was over 10 degrees Celsius warmer in the midday sun than it had been on Friday evening, and the lap times were correspondingly slower. A new fastest time was set in each of the first three flying laps; Marc Marquez topped the timing screens with a time of 1:52.034 minutes, putting him almost half a second ahead of second-placed Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia).

Aprilia outclassed the competition

It wasn’t until three minutes before the end that Bezzecchi catapulted himself to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1:51.571 minutes. Several riders went on to set sector bests, but were unable to put together a faster lap than the Italian. ‘Bez’ finished the session as the fastest, ahead of his Aprilia team-mates Raúl Fernández, Ai Ogura and Jorge Martín.

Marc Márquez secured fifth place with the fastest Ducati, 0.427 seconds off the pace, though the Spaniard was on different tyres to his rivals from Noale. Honda youngster Diogo Moreira, who was second from last in Friday’s qualifying, managed to finish in 7th place. Pedro Acosta also had a disastrous Friday evening , finishing 14th in qualifying, and complained of a lack of rear-wheel grip and poor cornering. In the significantly warmer FP1 session in the afternoon, the Spaniard was fourth; the ace from the Red Bull KTM team was unable to quite match this performance, finishing ninth in FP2, but showed an upward trend, thereby providing a glimmer of hope for the Austrians.

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