Valencia GP: Miller is the fastest as it’s Ducati vs Honda on Day 1
The Australian set a 1.30.927 to beat second place Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) by 0.012s, with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) seeing the top three split by a mere 0.068s.
Newly-crowned MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo had a tricky day at the office in both wet and dry conditions in the season-ending race, which will also bring down curtains to MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi’s career.
Grazie Vale! Every morning when I wake up I see the bike!
The crash early in FP2 did not help his cause, and the current King of MotoGP has work to do to grab an automatic Q2 place.
Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) and FP1 pacesetter Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM Factory Racing) crashed midway through the session, Turns 2 and 11 caught out the Italian and Spaniard, though both riders were deemed okay.
With rain in the morning it is FP2 times that make the combined timesheets. You could split the top trio of Miller, Pol and Pecco with a tyre blanket, but then there is a bit of a gap to Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in fourth. The Spaniard is 0.409s down on P1, while Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) rounded out the top five – also 0.4s shy.
Takaaki Nakagami had a solid opening day in P6, the Japanese rider just ahead of 2020 world champion Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in seventh and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) in eighth.
Andrea Dovizioso slipped to P9 by the time FP2 had ended but a top 10 is a fantastic Friday result for the Italian as he cotninues to adapt to the 2019 M1. Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) occupies P10 ahead of Saturday’s action.
That starts at 9.55am local time (2.25pmIST), before the final qualifying of the season from 2.10pm local time (6.40pm IST).
Pecco has six poles so far and Quartararo five… will that change in the season finale? With Quartararo down in P11 after Friday, the Frenchman will be looking to bounce back strong in the morning as we now look forward to the final qualifying day of the 2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship season.
Top 10 combined:
1. Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1:30.927
2. Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) + 0.012
3. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 0.068
4. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 0.409
5. Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) + 0.469
6. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) + 0.500
7. Joan Mir (Tem Suzuki Ecstar) + 0.586
8. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 0.594
9. Andrea Dovizioso (Petronas Yamaha SRT) + 0.670
10. Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) + 0.676
(By a special arrangement with Dorna Sports)
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