MotoGP Barcelona GP: Nakagami tops opening practice from Acosta
LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami led the way in the first MotoGP practice for the Barcelona Grand Prix after completing a late run on fresh tyres.
Fitting a new soft compound on the front of his Honda RC213V, Nakagami posted a time of 1m40.510s with just two minutes left to start his final weekend in MotoGP at the top of the leaderboard.
The Japanese rider had suffered an early crash at Turn 2, but was able to rejoin the session later on.
Pedro Acosta had led the majority of FP1 with a 1m40.912s on his Tech3 GasGas bike, despite being caught out in a crash caused by his team-mate Raul Fernandez.
Less than five minutes into the session, Fernandez clipped Acosta’s bike at the exit of Turn 5, leaving both of them on the ground.
Although both riders walked away from the incident, race control was forced to deploy a red flag to recover the stricken GasGas-branded RC16 of Fernandez and repair the damage to the air fence.
Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
When the session resumed after a 10-minute delay, championship leader Jorge Martin immediately shot to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m41.820s, before lowering the benchmark further to 1m40.971s.
Gresini’s Alex Marquez was the next rider to break the 1m41s barrier, going half a tenth quicker than Martin, before Acosta edged him out by 0.003s on his second bike to take over the top spot.
The 20-year-old’s time remained quickest until Nakagami’s late soft tyre run, but he was still able to finish second ahead of the younger Marquez.
KTM stablemate Brad Binder was another rider to make a late improvement, jumping up to fourth on a 1m40.952s, pushing Pramac’s Martin down to fifth.
Martin was followed by the factory Ducatis of Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, with the two-time champion ending up seventh and half a second off Nakagami’s best effort.
Aprilia’s charge was led by Maverick Vinales in eighth, while Jack Miller made it three bikes from the KTM group in ninth.
Michele Pirro, VR46 Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The top 10 was rounded out by Marc Marquez on the second Gresini bike, as he shaded the lead Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo and the Honda ridden by Luca Marini.
Aleix Espargaro, completing his final weekend in MotoGP for Aprilia, was classified 14th behind the Pramac bike of Franco Morbidelli.
Apart from Nakagami and the Tech3 duo, Michele Pirro was another rider to suffer a fall in the early moments of FP1, the Ducati tester ending up on the ground at Turn 5 as he got to grips with the VR46 GP23 bike normally ridden by Fabio di Giannantonio.
However, there was drama moments after the end of the session, as Bagnaia hit the deck at Turn 1 after a run-in with Vinales.
Replays showed the Italian running at leisurely speed after completing a practice start when Vinales went around the outside to overtake him, seemingly causing him to lose balance - there was no contact between the pair.
