Pedro Acosta tops afternoon practice in Barcelona

The afternoon practice in MotoGP is special, as the fastest top 10 riders earn a direct entry to Q2. The riders went on track with the green light at the end of the pit lane, using the good conditions to set some fast laps from the start.

The first measured times were in a time range from 1:40 to 1:42. However, it didn’t take long before Marco Bezzecchi broke into the 1:39s as the first rider of the session.

After 10 minutes into the session, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, A. Márquez, Di Giannantonio, Bastianini, Aldeguer, Morbidelli, R. Fernandez, Binder, Ogura, Moreira.

For this session, the riders chose soft tyres at both the front and rear. With each lap, the riders got closer to breaking into the 1:38s.

As the session progressed, there wasn’t any improvement, and most of the riders returned to the pits to talk with their mechanics. Francesco Bagnaia, who wasn’t doing so well in the morning practice, was in 19th place. Fabio Quartararo continued to be the top Yamaha rider in 12th place, with Jack Miller in 16th.

Jorge Martín, who crashed in the morning practice and led the majority of the morning session, was in 14th place, unable to find the pace. Meanwhile, his teammate Bezzecchi had started a good lap, but was slow in both the second and third sectors, leaving him without further improvement.

Most of the riders changed the tyre configuration to a medium rear tyre and soft front tyre. Pedro Acosta was trying hard, but was still left without improvement in 12th place.

With the session halfway done, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, Ogura, A. Márquez, Di Giannantonio, Bastianini, Aldeguer, Morbidelli, R. Fernandez, Binder, Moreira.

The first yellow flag was caused by Ai Ogura crashing at Turn 2. With 20 minutes left in the session, the riders slowly made their way back onto the track to fight for the top 10.

Brad Binder started a decent lap, and he managed to improve to 5th place. The second yellow flag was caused by Alex Rins crashing at Turn 5. However, Binder, who had started a really good lap, improved to first place and became the first rider to break into the 1:38s time range. Pedro Acosta then put in an incredible lap and jumped ahead of his teammate into first place.

With 10 minutes left, the top 10 looked as follows: Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Binder, Bastianini, Bezzecchi, Ogura, A. Márquez, R. Fernandez, Morbidelli, Miller.

Alex Márquez found his rhythm and improved to 2nd place, with Di Giannantonio improving right behind him.

Joan Mir, who was outside the top 10, managed to improve and move into 4th place. The third yellow flag was caused by Joan Mir crashing in sector 4. Jorge Martín, who had two laps to go and was fighting for an improvement, crashed at Turn 2.

With the chequered flag out, the riders were finishing their laps. The only riders with laps worthy of improvement were Zarco and Quartararo. Zarco found the speed and improved to 4th place, while Quartararo improved to 9th place. Raúl Fernandez had a great lap, and he moved to 4th place.

The top 10 riders going to Q2 were: Acosta, A. Márquez, Binder, R. Fernandez, Zarco, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi, Mir, Miller, Quartararo.