Marquez 1-2 as radical Honda debuts: First Jerez MotoGP practice

Gresini Ducati rider Alex Marquez led the way in the opening MotoGP practice at Jerez, after his brother Marc had headed most of the session.

Key moments

• Ducati GP23s look strong
• Aprilia in the mix again
• Honda prototype public debut
• Solid start for Pedrosa

It was a Marquez 1-2 for virtually the entirety of the 45-minute running, but the younger Marquez deciding to swap to a fresh soft front and rear combo for the closing stages allowed him to leapfrog Marc.

He finished the session on a 1m36.630s, half a second clear of his brother and team-mate.

While the elder Marquez's best lap had been set on his first run, his very final effort of the session was a 1m37.280s, on a soft front and medium rear that had together done 20 previous laps.

For comparison, this was seven tenths better than the fastest lap in the race last year, set on lap 19 of that contest.

Circuit of the Americas dominator Maverick Vinales was third, equipping a fresh medium rear late on to move up the order. Team-mate Aleix Espargaro also ran a fresh medium rear and lifted himself up into fourth place with his final lap.

Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli rode the fastest of the 2024-spec Ducatis to fifth place - with his GP24 peers Jorge Martin, Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini ninth, 12th and 13th respectively.

KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa was quickest of the RC16 riders in sixth, albeit by just 0.005s over Brad Binder.

The other wildcards, Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Stefan Bradl (Honda), were 23th and 24th, relegating Luca Marini (Honda) to last place.

Savadori is running what Aprilia has described as a "laboratory bike", featuring novelties that it hopes to campaign later in the season.

But while his RS-GP looks visually similar to those used by the full-time riders, Bradl's RC213V is a drastically different beast to the ones being raced by the Honda regulars - with major aero changes and a revised seat unit.

There were crashes during the session for Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3 Gas Gas).

Yellow flags are out! @JohannZarco1 has gone down at T8 💥

But he's already back on his feet 👍#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/cabYwjrZbE

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 26, 2024