Raúl Fernández (Aprilia RS-GP), Fermín Aldeguer (Boscoscuro) and Jaume Masiá (Honda), gave their own names to the Spanish dominance on the first day of the Qatar Grand Prix motorcycling, at the Lusail circuit.
Fernández achieved the first best practice classification with a time of 1:52.843, and although the also Spanish Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) managed to be faster than him, his record was canceled when he achieved it when yellow flags were waving in the last sector of the traced by the fall of his compatriot Pol Espargaró (Gas Gas RC 16).
There were some mishaps that disrupted plans such as those of the Australian Jack Miller (KTM RC 16) and the Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), but with more than half an hour of the session ahead and time to repair and improve the records, which This led to Miller being seen a little later in fifth place, but not Zarco, then nineteenth.
He wasn’t doing much better Jorge Martin nor Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, with more set-up problems on their bikes, while the Aprilia riders set the benchmarks with Maverick Viñales, Raúl Fernández and the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira in the first three positions.
The session entered its final phase, in which all the drivers ‘applied themselves’ fully, the first of them Raul Fernandezwho took the lead by lapping 49 thousandths of a second faster than Di Giannantoniowhile “Pecco” Bagnaia and Jorge Martín achieved the goal of entering the second classification, as did Marc Márquez, who followed the wheel of the world championship leader to place fifth.
There were still a couple of fast lap attempts that the vast majority of the drivers did not waste, getting closer and closer to the circuit record, until Maverick Viñales beat it by lapping in 1:52.652, but it was canceled shortly after for having achieved it. when there was a yellow flag on the track due to the fall of the Spanish Pol Espargaró (Gas Gas RC 16) in turn sixteen of the track.
In any case, Maverick Viñales was able to stay within the second classification, with the third best time, behind Raúl Fernández and Di Giannantonio, and ahead of Brad Binder, Aleix Espargaró, Luca Marini, Jorge Martín, “‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, Augusto Fernández and Marc Márquez, who are those who enter the second direct classification.
The Spanish Fermín Aldeguer (Boscoscuro), winner of the last two races held to date, Thailand and Malaysia, continued ‘connected’ and was the fastest in Moto2 with a time of 1:58.059, with which he lowered the previous best time absolute that the American Joe Roberts (Kalex) had since 2020, with a time of 1:58.136.
Aldeguer was a solid leader, followed by Arón Canet (Kalex), Sam Lowes (Kalex), Somkiat Chantra (Kalex), Jake Dixon (Kalex), Manuel González (Kalex), Ai Ogura (Kalex), Pedro Acosta (Kalex), Alonso López (Boscoscuro) and Tony Arbolino (Kalex), in the top ten positions.
Jaume Masiá (Honda) ‘sentenced’ the first day of Moto3 with a resounding superiority of more than half a second over his immediate pursuer, as he stopped the clock at 2:06.794, more than half a second over the Italian Romano Fenati (Honda) and the Dutch Collin Veijer (Husqvarna).
The Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna), his rival for the title, had to settle for eighth position just over a second away (1.074), a result that if it occurred in the race would mathematically grant the championship to the Spanish rider.