Alex Marquez dominates, Acosta in trouble in Jerez practice
MotoGP’s 2025 Spanish Grand Prix winner Alex Marquez goes into qualifying and sprint day in commanding form at Jerez, while third-in-the-championship Pedro Acosta must go through Q1.
Gresini Ducati rider Marquez’s win 12 months ago may have been helped by brother Marc crashing, but he is the man to beat in his own right at Jerez so far this year.
Running the latest Ducati aero for the first time, the younger Marquez had been quickest of those who hadn’t used fresh tyres in the morning and was nearly six tenths of a second clear of all rivals going into the final minutes of the afternoon session.
Even when VR46 Ducati’s morning pacesetter Fabio di Giannantonio closed in, Marquez’s cushion remained 0.333 seconds.
Some very big names flirted with missing out on automatic Q2 places, but most of those saved themselves in the end.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi made it up to third as Aprilia got all four bikes straight into the pole shootout - despite another scare for Jorge Martin as he followed his bizarre morning post-session crash with a fall at the final corner halfway through the afternoon, before making it back out on his second bike and taking ninth.
Marc Marquez was as low as 15th before a lap that was good enough for fourth, with his works Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia having a big crash into the first corner right at the start of the session and having to handle some horrible braking twitches all session but still taking sixth in the end.
Straight into Q2: Alex Marquez; Fabio Di Giannantonio; Marco Bezzecchi; Marc Marquez; Ai Ogura; Pecco Bagnaia; Raul Fernandez; Fermin Aldeguer; Jorge Martin; Enea Bastianini
In Q1: Joan Mir; Johann Zarco; Luca Marini; Franco Morbidelli; Pedro Acosta; Brad Binder; Fabio Quartararo; Toprak Razgatlioglu; Diogo Moreira; Jack Miller; Alex Rins; Lorenzo Savadori; Augusto Fernandez
The two factory Ducatis were split by Ai Ogura, whose Trackhouse team boss Davide Brivio, confirmed to MotoGP’s world feed broadcast during the session that Ogura had told him he was leaving for 2027. He is expected to replace Alex Rins at Yamaha.
Tech3’s Enea Bastianini had the rare experience of being quickest KTM, reaching Q2 with 10th.
Acosta lost one lap with a big error but never had the pace even on his smoother laps. He was only 15th, one place ahead of works KTM team-mate Brad Binder.
Honda looked like it might get multiple bikes straight into Q2 heading into the final minutes but ended up with none - though Joan Mir, Johann Zarco and Luca Marini were only within half a tenth of doing so in 11th to 13th.
Yamaha’s top runner was Fabio Quartararo in 17th.
