Marc thibodeau

Listen to this article Threats of rain stayed away as the hour-long second practice at Rio Honda got underway, with 2022 Argentina GP winner Aleix Espargaro taking over from team-mate Maverick Vinales to head the field. A late surge of time attack laps as the field tried to bag a place in the top 10 to get directly into Saturday’s Q2 qualifying session led to Espargaro producing a 1m38.518s to end Friday fastest of all by 0.162 seconds. As the Aprilia’s bathed in glory, misery dominated the Yamaha garage as 2021 world champion Quartararo continued to battle grip issues on his M1 this afternoon. Despite his best efforts, Quartararo could only go 14th quickest in FP2, 0.746s off the pace as his Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli sneaked through in ninth. After 10 minutes of the session, only three riders had found any lap time gains from their FP1 best – though nothing to trouble the top 10. The first significant improvement came with 35 minutes to go when LCR … [Read more...] about MotoGP Argentina GP: Aleix Espargaro fastest in FP2, Quartararo misses Q2

Listen to this article The 2023 MotoGP season continues just five days after the dramatic opening round of the season in Portugal, with the opening 45-minute session of the Argentina weekend taking place in dry conditions under threateningly grey clouds. Having broken its MotoGP victory duck one year ago at the Rio Honda circuit, Aprilia set the early pace as Vinales ended FP1, 0.284 seconds clear of 2022 Argentina winner Aleix Espargaro . With rain a threat for this afternoon’s hour-long practice, the final throes of FP1 were a mini qualifying, with Vinales setting a 1m39.207s on a fresh medium tyre. Espargaro’s 1m39.491s ensured an Aprilia 1-2 in FP1, with the injured Jorge Martin on the leading Pramac Ducati completing the top three. The opening stages of FP1 were topped by Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli , who set the early pace with an unrepresentative 1m41.048s. This was quickly usurped by Vinales, who made his first of several appearances at the top of the … [Read more...] about MotoGP Argentina GP: Vinales leads Aprilia 1-2 in FP1, Quartararo struggles to 15th