Independent LCR-Castrol team rider Cal Crutchlow took the top slot on the close-backed time sheets
Honda took the high ground at the resurfaced and renamed Jerez-Angel Nieto circuit on the first day of practice for Sunday’s Spanish GP. But the most favoured of their riders, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, was only fifth-fastest … and suffered a small crash during the session.
Marquez, Spanish MotoGP 2018
Marquez remained the biggest threat, thanks to his consistently rapid race pace. Unlike others fitting soft tyres and going for a banzai lap, he was using race tyres, and had run two more laps than the 25 of race distance when the front folded harmlessly at the first corner.
Independent LCR-Castrol team rider Cal Crutchlow took the top slot on the close-backed time sheets, inside the lap record although not the pole record, and less than three hundredths faster than Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, still nursing a painful right wrist, who took his third Jerez win here last year.
Crutchlow, Spanish MotoGP 2018
He in turn was just four thousandths faster than Johann Zarco, top Yamaha again on the satellite Tech 3 bike.
Zarco, Spanish MotoGP 2018
The weather remained balmy and times very close, the top 16 within one second. But with rain striking in the evening and the possibility of more tomorrow, it was the top ten that mattered, for an entry ticket into the “senior” Q2 session, with three fancied runners out of luck: Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) 11th, Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) 12th and Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) 14th.
On the right side of the split were Andrea Iannone (Ecstar Suzuki) fourth; then Marquez followed by the two factory Ducatis, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. Dovizioso had reverted to his usual wingless state after adopting the aero bodywork to tame the bumps in Austin; and both praised improvements that had made the bike smoother mid-corner, at a track where the Ducati has struggled in the past.
Dovizioso, Spanish MotoGP 2018
Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Ducati) placed eighth; then Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha). Both factory Yamaha riders were concerned with fading tyre grip. Tenth went to Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM), by virtue of a flying lap in the morning, when he had placed third.
Miller, Spanish MotoGP 2018
Rossi, Spanish MotoGP 2018
Moto2
In Moto2, last year’s maiden winner here Alex Marquez rose to top the Moto2 sheets in the afternoon, also narrowly inside the race lap record but not pole time, with the top 16 riders within a second.
But second-fastest Lorenzo Baldassarri (HP40 Kalex) was almost a full three tenths slower. Pecco Bagnaia (SKY VR46 Kalex) was third; then Sam Lowes (SII KTM).
Moto3
Class rookie Romano Fenati (Marinelli Kalex) was fifth; then Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) barely a tenth ahead of another rookie, reigning Moto3 champion Joan Mir (Marc VDS Kalex). Mattia Pasini (Kalex), Miguel Oliveira (KTM) and Iker Lecuona (KTM) rounded out the top ten.
American rider Joe Roberts (NTS) was 26th.
As usual, the Hondas were on top in Moto3, taking eight of the top ten slots, including the first six.
Nico Antonelli (SIC58 Honda) was on the top, and (as with the bigger classes) a fraction inside the race lap record.
Jorge Martin (Del Conca Honda) was a close second; then morning leader Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Honda), who – like fourth-fastest Enea Bastianini (Leopard Honda) – did not improve his time.
Aron Canet (EG Honda) was fifth, six tenths off the top; then Honda Team Asia’s Kaito Toba; with Marco Ramirez seventh on the best of the KTMs.
by Michael Scott at Jerez de la Frontera