Seven riders under the previous outright lap record and less than a second covering 19 riders, MotoGP is fiercely tight in the Czech Republic but they all chase one rider. Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) set a 1’51.735 to top Friday running at Brno ahead of Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team).
FIRST HALF: Aprilia charge forward, Marc Marquez crashes
A second crash of the day was not how Marc Marquez envisaged his afternoon getting underway but early in Practice, the #93 tucked the front at Turn 11. Thankfully, he was all OK but it cost him track time. At the top of the standings, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) was going well ahead of Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) before Ogura went top, making it a Trackhouse 1-2 approaching the halfway point. Bezzecchi soon changed all that as he took over in P1 with a new lap record too boot – 1’52.275 the benchmark time.
IMPROVEMENTS AND PROBLEMS: a new lap record, Acosta with tech issues
Moving into the top ten, Maverick Viñales (Red Bull KTM Tech3) was flying and so was Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) in P5, whilst teammate Luca Marini had also moved up into eighth. Elsewhere, Acosta put himself back in P1 before technical problems saw him return to the paddock. Smoke visible, his session was now paused. Having been briefly out of the top ten, Ducati Lenovo Team pairing Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez were straight back in the provisional top ten with the reigning World Champion setting the first-ever 1’51 of Brno.
FINAL FIVE MINUTES: push comes to shove in Czechia
Need to move himself into absolute safety, Di Giannantonio climbed to P1 with four minutes left on the clock whilst 2024 World Champion Jorge Martin was 12th with less than three minutes to go. He was hustling his RS-GP around Brno and elevated himself to P8 whilst teammate Bezzecchi had snatched P1. That didn’t last long though as a mighty lap from Ogura had meant that the #79 was now leading the way. All of the changing had now left ‘Martinator’ in P10 and he was about to be shoved out of Q2 as Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) improved late on to go eighth.
AT THE FLAG: Friday’s top ten
Ogura got the job done and his new lap record gave him a 0.091s advantage of Championship leader Bezzecchi and Catalan GP winner Di Giannantonio. Diggia was ahead of Pecco whilst Marc Marquez rounded out the top five. Acosta was sixth whilst Mir took P7 despite a late crash at Turn 7. Moreira made it two Hondas in the top ten whilst Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) and Fernandez are the last of the automatic Q2 qualifiers.
Q1 ON SATURDAY: big names headline
Martin in 11th is not what he ordered whilst Viñales came close but not close enough. 2021 World Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) was second in the morning but 14th in the afternoon and just 0.798s behind Ogura whilst Alex Marquez’s (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) return saw him finish in 15th.
MotoGP Practice results from Brno!