The world champion six times Marc Marquez was the fastest in practice for Argentina MotoGP on Friday, continuing the form of blisters which saw him win the opening of the season in Thailand. The Spanish star, triple winner in Argentina, has achieved a new 1 minute record for 37.295 seconds on her factory ducati on a drying track in Termas de Rio Hondo, the small town of Spa located 1,100 km northwest of Buenos Aires. Just as they had done in Thailand, Ducati dominated again with Fabio Di Giannantonio and the younger brother of Marquez, Alex, filling the first three.
Alex Marquez, who finished second in the opening of the season two weeks ago, took the post in Argentina when the track organized a MotoGP for the last time in 2023.
He finished third this weekend in another Ducati podium scan.
“I immediately felt comfortable. We obviously put more work on the bicycle compared to Thailand, because it was a long time since I did not drive on this track, and it was also my first time here on a Ducati,” said Marc Marquez.
“It is true that there are rivals which are very close, so we will see if we can improve more. The goal of tomorrow morning is to qualify in the front row.”
Double world champion Francesco Bagnaia, on the second Ducati factory, is just registered in the top 10 – and a direct place during the second qualification session on Saturday – despite crashed in the last minutes on Friday.
“Unfortunately, I crashed at the start of my second time attack and it’s a shame, because I wanted to ride hard,” said Bagnaia.
“I felt that I could have been three tenths and a half faster; we are still in the top ten and that’s good, well considered.”
Argentina MotoGP, the second round of the 22 races season, will be missing from the Jorge Martin world champion.
The Spanish rider of Aprilia has still not recovered injuries which sidelined him in Thailand.
Martin said Thursday that he would also sit in the third round in Texas at the end of March and that he may not be ready when Qatar MotoGP takes place in mid-April.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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