Variable weather on the return to Brazil – Pedro Acosta sets the fastest time in the first practice session on rain tires, just ahead of Jack Miller on slicks
MotoGP returns to Brazil for the first time since 2004 and rides on the modernized race track in Goiania for the first time since 1989. The first practice session was characterized by changeable weather. On a damp track, Pedro Acosta (KTM) set the fastest time on rain tires. Some riders switched to slick tires, including Jack Miller. The Pramac Yamaha rider narrowly missed out on the best time at the end (to the result).
Rain has been the dominant theme so far on the return to Brazil. After rainfall in the morning, the training sessions had to be postponed by an hour. As it is a new track, the first MotoGP practice session was extended by 15 minutes.
At the start of the session, the track had largely dried out, but there were still some damp patches. That’s why everyone initially went out on rain tires. It was slippery, as Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) almost crashed in a highsider on the inspection lap.
Marc Marquez (Ducati) immediately adapted well to the new track. After the first run, he led the classification by six tenths of a second. KTM spearhead Acosta, who came to Brazil as the world championship leader, had a harmless ride into the gravel at the start.
At midday, the sun broke through the dark clouds more and more. At the halfway point, Miller, who was riding his 200th Grand Prix in the premier class, was the first rider to switch to slicks. Marc Marquez remained on rain tires at this point.
The stopwatch showed that rain tires were still the right choice. At the beginning of the last quarter of an hour, Brad Binder also switched to slicks, but the KTM rider’s times were also slower than with rain tires.
Ten minutes before the end of the session, Jorge Martin (Aprilia) set the fastest time on rain tires. Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Joan Mir (Honda), Luca Marini (Honda) and Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda) also tried slicks for the final run.
The remaining riders stayed on their used rain tires, which still allowed better lap times than slicks. Marc Marquez displaced Martin from first position again. But in the end, the track made even better times possible.
Acosta set a time of 1:26.688 minutes on his last lap with rain tires and took the lead. Miller showed just how much the conditions had improved. With 17 laps of old slicks, he was only 0.087 seconds slower than Acosta on his final lap.
Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) improved to third place at the end. Marc Marquez finished the session in fourth place. He was followed by Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati), Maverick Vinales (Tech3-KTM), Martin, returnee Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini-Ducati), Bagnaia and Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati).
At 2.8 seconds behind, Quartararo was in 22nd and last place. Despite the slippery conditions, there were no crashes during the entire hour. After the practice session, practice starts were again possible on the grid. Many of them had burnouts on the damp patches.
The second practice session starts at 20:00 CET. This will decide who qualifies directly for Q2. The weather forecast remains changeable.