Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo broke his own Jerez MotoGP outright lap record on his way to the top of the free practice three timesheets this morning.
The French youngster, who yesterday said the 2020 M1 was a lot harder to ride than the 2019 version, used a hard front/soft rear Michelin combination to set a 1’36.806 on his tenth lap of 20 which was just under a tenth inside his own pole lap from last year.
Quartararo was chased hard for top spot by Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller on a 1’36.858 and the Ecstar Suzuki of Joan Mir with a 1’36.908, both using softs all round.
Reigning champion Marc Marquez used the same hard front/soft rear combination to secure fourth place ahead of Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, who ended 0.240s behind M1 stablemate Quartararo.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, who admitted yesterday he has opted to ride with the 2019 RCV chassis this weekend, was second for most of the session but slid back to sixth.
Franco Morbidelli, along with Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi, left it until the death to make it into qualifying two. The Petronas Yamaha man hopped into sixth place with his penultimate lap just after Rossi had occupied it.
Pecco Bagnaia put his satellite Pramac Desmosedici in ninth place and in front of Andrea Dovizioso on the factory version. Dovizioso is struggling with the new-spec rear tyre which isn’t allowing him to spin and turn the GP20 as he would like.
The Italian, who is riding with a recently-pinned collarbone, was the last automatic Q2 qualifier and ahead of KTM’s Pol Espargaro, who missed out when Dovizioso replacing him in tenth place.
There was some controversy in the final laps as Marc Marquez looked to have held up Alex Rins on his fast lap, cruising on the line but we await statements from race direction. Rins did plenty of arm-waving to ensure it was picked up on.
Danilo Petrucci, suffered from his crash on Wednesday and the same corner-exit problem as Dovizioso, finished in 13th with Taka Nakagami and Johann Zarco completing the top 15.
