MotoGP Spanish GP: Mir leads Suzuki 1-2 as Quartararo crashes in FP1

Heavy rain on Thursday evening left some damp patches on track for the start of Friday’s running at the sixth round of the 2022 campaign at Jerez, but the entire field headed out on slicks to get some laps under their belts.

Reigning world champion Quartararo, who is twice a winner at Jerez in MotoGP, set the early pace with a 1m41.849s, which he improved eventually to a 1m39.226s 10 minutes in.

Honda’s Marc Marquez – who said on Thursday at Jerez that HRC had “ideas” on how to fix the problems it faced last time out in Portugal – briefly went to the top of the order with a 1m39.028s.

But Quartararo returned to top spot a few seconds later with a 1m38.780s.

However, with just under 15 minutes of the 45-minute session gone, Quartararo’s session started to unravel when he crashed exiting Turn 13 – having seemingly touched a damp patch – and hurt his groin.

Needing some time before returning to his Yamaha box, Quartararo did get back out on track on his second M1.

But he would have another big moment with just under four minutes remaining coming into the Turn 9 right-hander while on a lap that was set to put him back to the top of the timesheets.

Then on the following lap the Yamaha rider ran off track up at the Turn 5 right-hander leading onto the back straight.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Quartararo would end the session in fifth, but just 0.245s off the pace as 19 riders were within a second of top spot at the end of FP1.

While Quartararo was having a scrappy end to his session, 2020 world champion Mir had gone top of the pile with a 1m38.422s.

LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez had briefly gone top at the end of FP1 with a 1m38.368s, but Mir produced an excellent 1m38.194s to end the morning fastest of all.

Team-mate Alex Rins moved up to second with his final lap, shadowing Mir by just 0.025s, with Alex Marquez shuffled back to third ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Quartararo.

Takaaki Nakagami was sixth on the sister LCR bike, with Brad Binder seventh on his factory team KTM ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro – who topped FP1 briefly at one stage – and Aprilia's Maverick Vinales.

Jack Miller completed the top 10 on the first of the Ducatis ahead of Marc Marquez, with erstwhile championship leader Enea Bastianini 12th on his 2021-spec Gresini-run Desmosedici ahead of Francesco Bagnaia on the other factory team Ducati and Pramac’s Jorge Martin.

Ahead of FP1, Tech3 announced that Raul Fernandez will sit out this weekend’s Spanish GP and the post-race test on Monday due to the hand injury which ruled him out of last week’s Portuguese GP.

Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori continues to wildcard this weekend, with Honda test rider Stefan Bradl also present.

Both were 23rd and 20th respectively at the end of FP1.

FP2 for the 2022 MotoGP Spanish GP gets underway at 2:10pm local time (1:10pm BST).

MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix - FP1 results

Cla	Rider		Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Joan Mir		Suzuki	18	1'38.194
2	Alex Rins		Suzuki	21	1'38.219	0.025
3	Alex Marquez		Honda	21	1'38.368	0.174
4	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	21	1'38.426	0.232
5	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	19	1'38.439	0.245
6	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	20	1'38.458	0.264
7	Brad Binder		KTM	19	1'38.502	0.308
8	Pol Espargaro		Honda	20	1'38.521	0.327
9	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	20	1'38.627	0.433
10	Jack Miller		Ducati	21	1'38.754	0.560
11	Marc Marquez		Honda	20	1'38.806	0.612
12	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	18	1'38.866	0.672
13	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	19	1'38.898	0.704
14	Jorge Martin		Ducati	19	1'38.907	0.713
15	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	20	1'38.979	0.785
16	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	20	1'38.991	0.797
17	Johann Zarco		Ducati	20	1'39.033	0.839
18	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	22	1'39.122	0.928
19	Andrea Dovizioso		Yamaha	20	1'39.182	0.988
20	Stefan Bradl		Honda	20	1'39.322	1.128
21	Remy Gardner		KTM	20	1'39.700	1.506
22	Luca Marini		Ducati	19	1'39.749	1.555
23	Lorenzo Savadori		Aprilia	17	1'40.035	1.841
24	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	19	1'40.065	1.871
25	Darryn Binder		Yamaha	18	1'41.352	3.158
View full results