The times tumbled in Practice 2 as Aprilia Racing hit the ground running in Termas – but Fabio Quartararo encounters troubles
1st and 2nd in Practice 1, 1st and 2nd in Practice 2 – it doesn’t get any better than that for Aprilia Racing as Day 1 at the Gran Premio Michelin® de la República Argentina belonged to the Noale factory. Ending Friday on top was Aleix Espargaro after the 2022 Termas race winner got the better of teammate and P1 pacesetter Maverick Viñales in the afternoon session, while Portuguese GP podium finisher Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) claimed P3.
How the automatic Q2 top 10 battle played out
It wasn’t until the final 20 minutes that we started to see plenty of movement on the timesheets in Practice 2, as Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) pounced to demote Viñales to second after the latter had produced a dominant performance in Practice 1 to lead the field by a couple of tenths. On his second flying lap, Martin moved the goalposts further as his 1:39.092 became the time to beat, as Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) climbed to P3.
With all eyes focused on grabbing a top 10 spot ahead of Saturday morning’s qualifying, Practice 2 lit up. Aleix Espargaro set a new benchmark as Viñales slotted into P2, 0.009s off his teammate, before Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) then went top of the pile with a 1:38.969. Then, Viñales was back at the summit – but not for long. Bezzecchi was now the pacesetter, with teammate Luca Marini going third fastest. Meanwhile, with 10 minutes to go, Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) was in P13 and 0.9s off P1.
With three minutes to go, Quartararo was still in P13 having been shuffled down a couple of spots. The gap to P1? 0.6s. In contrast, Viñales found an extra dose of pace and went back to P1, but his stablemate would make sure that didn’t last long. Aleix Espargaro set a 1:38.518 to beat Viñales by 0.162s, as Quartararo remained outside the top 10 with seconds to go.
And that’s where he stayed. Quartararo ended Day 1 in Argentina in P14, 0.746s shy of Aleix Espargaro’s table-topping time – differing fortunes for two of the top contenders.
Behind the top three, Marini bounced back from a disappointing opening weekend with a solid Friday P4 in Termas de Rio Hondo, with Johann…