Quartararo starts Barcelona MotoGP Friday comfortably on top

Fabio Quartararo made a commanding start to MotoGP’s Catalunya Grand Prix weekend at Barcelona by topping first practice on his Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Quartararo – a double winner when MotoGP last raced in Spain at Jerez in July – wasn’t headed during any of the serious Friday morning running.

His early 1m40.972s stood until the closing minutes before he beat it himself with a 1m40.584s just as the opposition began to cut his advantage.

That put Quartararo half a second clear of the field, and though Andrea Dovizioso twice sliced into that gap a final 1m40.431s from Quartararo meant he ended the session fastest by 0.430s.

Second place for championship leader Dovizioso, albeit running softs front and rear while Quartararo had a medium tyre on his bike’s rear, was still an encouraging start given Ducati’s recent form.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir, who crashed under braking for the downhill Turn 5 left-hander early on, ran in tandem with Dovizioso for the final part of the session and ended up just behind the Ducati in third.

Behind fourth-placed Misano winner Maverick Vinales, Aleix Espargaro bounced back from going into the Turn 5 gravel in the first part of the session to put his Aprilia fifth.

Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi completed the top eight, with Cal Crutchlow the fastest Honda in ninth despite his injury woes and Miguel Oliveira the fastest KTM in 10th for Tech3.

Oliveira’s team-mate Iker Lecuona was the session’s other crasher with a late fall at the first corner.

Practice 1 Results