A late storm from Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder claimed the opening honours of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend sitting fastest in Friday’s FP1.
The South African’s penultimate lap set the pace with a 1’54.851, just half a tenth ahead of LCR Idemitsu’s Takaaki Nakagami with Suzuki’s Alex Rins seemingly confident with preseason work, in third.
2022 free practice action kicked off at Qatar with controversy over Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati engine allocation. Last season’s runner up, and favourite to challenge this time around is rumoured to have struggled with the 2022’s spec upgrades, prompting the Bologna factory to run three versions across its eight riders. Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini headed out on track on 2021’s front runner with two different 2022 specifications split between Johann Zarco, Jorge Martin and Luca Marini and the factory Lenovo riders of Jack Miller and Bagnaia.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro maintained his preseason performance as FP1 roared to life, the Spaniard leading the standings with a 1’55.378 on his fifth lap of the new year with Marc Marquez up to speed and on his tail in the opening action. A seemingly fully fit Franky Morbidelli looked to challenge after the initial ten minutes, briefly sitting second before Marquez and Repsol Honda teammate Pol Espargaro dropped the Monster Yamaha rider to fifth, Rins sliding into fourth before Pol’s effort was deleted and Morbidelli improved again.
Zarco sat fifth after the initial third was dispatched, Bastianini impressing from the outset ahead of reigning champion Fabio Quartararo, Miller, Espargaro and Bagnaia. Martin held off last year’s victor Viñales in the top-12 at the Spaniard’s Aprilia education continued with the LCR pairing of Nakagami and Alex Marquez split by Joan Mir on the edge of the top 15.
Raul Fernandez held top rookie honours after 20 minutes of track time, the Tech3 KTM circulating 1.3s adrift of the Aprilia’s target time and six-tenths ahead of his teammate Remy Gardner in 18th and 20th respectively.
Mir and Quartararo boosted their way up the times at the halfway stage, running fifth and sixth and on late 1’55 pace before heading for pitlane. The Suzuki equalling the Ducati speed trap kings on 352.9km/h while Yamaha operated with a 10km/h deficit once again.
Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira arrived to the top nine after 12 laps in the desert, the Ducatis of Miller and Martin ahead with Quartararo narrowly behind as Repsol Honda and Suzuki continued to squabble out front.
Mir was the first to better Aprilia’s benchmark with eight minutes left on the clock, the 2020 champion setting a 1’55.371, just 0,007s ahead of Espargaro with his Ecstar team-mate sandwiched between the Repsol of Marquez and Espargaro in the top five.
Yamaha’s factory duo sat sixth and seventh as the session neared conclusion, Bagnaia crashing out into turn six with five minutes to go.
Rins overpowered his teammate with three to go, the only rider on soft tyres taking charge overall, 1’55.278 now the target as the hot laps began to register. Brad Binder sliding his KTM up to sixth thanks to a 1’55.537 before Morbidelli advanced to second and the younger Marquez took fifth on the LCR Honda.
The final flurry saw the times quickly shuffled, Binder advancing the pace with a 1’54.851 as Nakagami matched it just 0.056s back and the Repsol pairing battled for fourth and fifth. Morbidelli settled for sixth as the flag dropped with Mir, Espargaro, Marquez and Oliveira demoting Quartararo out of the top ten.
