MotoGP: Quartararo fastest in Friday practice

The long-awaited return of MotoGP to Indonesia finally got underway on Friday, March 18 as Free Practice began in Lombok. Overnight showers left the circuit wet in the morning, but intense sunshine would see conditions dramatically improve for the afternoon sessions. As always, the margins in MotoGP continue to be some of the tightest ever seen with only 1.6 seconds splitting the entire 24-rider grid.

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team was 1-2 at the end of Friday’s MotoGP practice at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia.

Fabio Quartararo topped teammate Franco Morbidelli by 0.030s having set a table-topping 1:31.608.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) sits P3 heading into Saturday’s sessions as Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda teammate Marc Marquez, Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) were out to lunch.

Practice 2 saw the #93 suffer a fast fall at Turn 11 – avoiding any major injury but not returning to the circuit for the final minutes of the session. Like his teammate, the untimely fall and how tight the MotoGP field is meant that Marquez will provisionally be in Q1. He, like many others, is hoping for sunshine tomorrow.

“Today in the morning we were able to go quite well but then in the afternoon we had a crash when it was not the time to have a crash. This can happen when you are pushing for one fast lap. We still need to work on what tire will be best for the race, this will be the main objective for tomorrow. Before the crash it was OK, but we will have to see what the situation is tomorrow. Not happy for the result and hoping for dry conditions tomorrow morning.”

Practice 2 Results

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Behind	Gap
1	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	18	1’31.608	0.000	0.000
2	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	18	1’31.638	0.030	0.030
3	5	Johann Zarco	Ducati	22	1’31.893	0.285	0.255
4	89	Jorge Martin	Ducati	20	1’31.904	0.296	0.011
5	23	Enea Bastianini	Ducati	14	1’31.921	0.313	0.017
6	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	22	1’31.965	0.357	0.044
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	18	1’32.008	0.400	0.043
8	33	Brad Binder	KTM	19	1’32.017	0.409	0.009
9	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	22	1’32.049	0.441	0.032
10	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	21	1’32.106	0.498	0.057
11	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha	21	1’32.303	0.695	0.197
12	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	20	1’32.314	0.706	0.011
13	12	Maverick Viñales	Aprilia	19	1’32.344	0.736	0.030
14	49	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Ducati	18	1’32.418	0.810	0.074
15	72	Marco Bezzecchi	Ducati	20	1’32.471	0.863	0.053
16	73	Alex Marquez	Honda	22	1’32.554	0.946	0.083
17	25	Raúl Fernández	KTM	19	1’32.557	0.949	0.003
18	87	Remy Gardner	KTM	20	1’32.626	1.018	0.069
19	44	Pol Espargaro	Honda	18	1’32.628	1.020	0.002
20	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	19	1’32.641	1.033	0.013
21	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	18	1’32.845	1.237	0.204
22	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	18	1’32.847	1.239	0.002
23	40	Darryn Binder	Yamaha	19	1’33.014	1.406	0.167
24	10	Luca Marini	Ducati	20	1’33.223	1.615	0.209