Dani Pedrosa made his premier class return in fine style to lead the way in FP1 for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, the Spaniard clear of Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin.
KTM test rider Pedrosa – who is making his first MotoGP appearance in nearly two years this weekend – lapped well within the top ten across the entirety of the 45 minute test, posting a 1:37.810s early on to take over from Miguel Oliveira at the top of the times.
With higher temperatures and potential thunderstorms on the way prior to FP2 on Friday afternoon, the riders were keen to try and end the opening session within the top ten in order to secure a guaranteed spot within Saturday’s pole shootout – meaning times quickly began to tumble as the test reached its conclusion.
Aleix Espargaro got near to clearing the 1:37 bracket on his Aprilia as he fired in a 1:37.090s, though he was eclipsed by a flying Takaaki Nakagami by just half-a-tenth moments later.
It would be Martin though that first broke into the 1:36’s by nearly two-tenths-of-a-second, though Pedrosa still had a little left in the tank as he perfected the final sector to record a 1:36.770s, a benchmark that would ultimately prove unbeatable as he topped an official race weekend session well over four years after his retirement from full-time competition.
Martin held onto second ahead of Nakagami, while VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini lifted himself up from the bottom of the timesheets to fourth just prior to the chequered flag ahead of Espargaro.
Brad Binder ended up sixth fastest as the best-placed of the full-time KTM pilots ahead of Gresini’s Alex Marquez and the other factory KTM of Jack Miller, while Francesco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales captured the final places within the top ten on their Ducati and Aprilia machines respectively.
Oliveira ended slipping all the way to 13th by the end of the session, while series leader Marco Bezzecchi was forced to settle for 14th overall on the sister VR46 entry.
Factory Yamaha men Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli also struggled to record decent efforts as they languished down in 18th and 20th respectively, while the returning Enea Bastianini eased himself back onto his Desmosedici with the 23rd best time.
Iker Lecuona – who is deputising for the injured Marc Marquez at Jerez – ended up as the slowest of the 24 rider’s entered for this weekend, the Andorran lapping around a second slower than GasGas’ Jonas Folger in 23rd as he set about learning the RC213-V.
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