Warm-up at MotorLand: Bezzecchi dominant, KTM riders in 2nd and 4th

Late August in Spain – you can always count on the weather: from the very first lap of the Aragon GP, the riders will face sweltering heat, but also consistent conditions on the five-kilometre-long circuit. Track temperatures of over 50 degrees during Saturday’s sprint race had led to an inconsistent tyre strategy – and also to no clear conclusions as to which Michelin compound would be best suited for the upcoming 23-lap Grand Prix.

During the very compact 10-minute warm-up, the Aprilia factory riders in particular tried to get a clearer picture of how the medium compound performed – in the sprint, Bezzecchi and Martin had opted for the soft compound and finished in 3rd and 5th places respectively.

For three riders, the warm-up session was more of a functional test. Honda rider Luca Marini and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) had crashed early on Saturday. In addition, Fabio ‘El Diablo’ Quartararo had to retire his Yamaha M1 following an engine failure.

At 9.40 am, all 22 riders – including the stand-ins for the injured Ai Ogura and Maverick Viñales, Lorenzo Savadori (Trackhouse) and Pol Espargaro (Tech3) – took to the track, which had already been warmed up by the heavy-duty excavators. The Harley riders, however, are competing on significantly different Dunlop racing tyres.

KTM works rider Pedro Acosta was off to a flying start. The Spaniard clocked a time of 1:47.616 for his first flying lap, making him just under three tenths of a second faster than sprint winner Marc Marquez in P3 – with Fabio Quartararo ahead of him. Acosta has already suffered two crashes at Aragon, but remains fully determined.

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In the final stages of the warm-up, Marc Marquez’s future team-mate was battling for second place. Marco Bezzecchi made a strong impression, clocking a best time under the 1:47 mark. Marc Marquez, in third place, was over 0.7 seconds slower. Remarkably, KTM test rider Pol Espargaro, in fourth place, was just one hundredth of a second behind the world champion.

Quartararo, Marini, Fernández, Aldeguer, Zarco and Rins rounded off the top 10. There were problems for VR46 ace Di Giannantonio, who was almost two seconds off the pace in P21. Pecco Bagnaia also struggled, finishing 17th.