Miller fastest, Quartararo last at damp Valencia

Damp-track specialist Jack Miller topped the wet opening practice session for the European Grand Prix at Valencia, as Valentino Rossi’s stand-in Garrett Gerloff impressed.

World Superbike rider Gerloff, replacing Rossi for both of Friday practices while the seven-time MotoGP champion awaits a second negative COVID-19 test, was instantly on pace in his first-ever run at Valencia as he got to grips with the Yamaha M1 bike in the wet.

He finished 16th, a second and a half off Pramac rider Miller’s pace.

That was five places ahead of Yamaha’s main title contender Fabio Quartararo, who was slowest of all.

Miller had taken the lead from Ducati stablemate Danilo Petrucci – who won the season’s sole wet race so far at Le Mans – towards the end of the opening runs, posting a 1m42.555s that he then lowered by three tenths of a second.

The track did not appear to dry significantly for the remainder of the session, and though Miller did improve before the running was over, it was only a marginal gain that took him to a 1m42.063s.

Petronas SRT Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli was his nearest rival in second, 0.467s off. He was the sole rider among the six main championship contenders to finish in the top eight.

Marc Marquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl led Honda’s charge in third, with his factory team-mate Alex Marquez making up the top five and the pair split by Avintia Ducati’s Johann Zarco.

Marquez, however, was one of the two riders to crash during the session, falling at the Turn 6 left-hander. The other crash came from Miller’s Pramac team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, at the Turn 2 left-hander.

Petrucci settled for sixth despite a late improvement, with KTM duo Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira (Tech3) completing the top eight, ahead of two title contenders Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and Maverick Vinales (Yamaha).

Suzuki’s championship leader Joan Mir was only 17th and had a late excursion through the gravel at Turn 8, while his nearest rival Quartararo was 21st and last.

The Petronas Yamaha rider indicated on Thursday that he would be cautious riding in the wet, with the rest of the weekend expected to be largely dry – but Quartararo nearly crashed towards the end anyway during a moment at Turn 2, and looked agitated upon arriving to his pitbox.

MotoGP newcomer Lorenzo Savadori finished the session in 20th place. The Aprilia tester, who is replacing Bradley Smith on the RS-GP for the final three races of the year as a reward for winning the Italian Superbike title, was just over a second behind the team’s lead rider Aleix Espargaro.

Practice 1 Results