Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) (AFP) - Ducati's Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia signalled a return to form by topping the free practice times for the Spanish MotoGP ahead of championship leader Fabio Quartararo on Saturday.
The pair will do battle for pole position in qualifying at the Jerez circuit later in the day for the sixth race of the 21-race season on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Bagnaia ran Quartararo a close second for the title in 2021 but made a poor start to this season before declaring that he was starting to "feel better on the bike" after an eight-place finish in last weekend's race in Portugal.
Defending world champion Quartararo is running high on confidence after his win last weekend and flung his Yamaha round the track just a fraction of a second slower than Bagnaia.
In bright sunshine the Japanese Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami was third on the fast, dry track.
Six-time world champion Marc Marquez was fourth on the track where he has won three times at this level but also one on which he fell heavily, leading to a long injury lay-off in 2020.
Selected free practice times
1. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) 1min 36.782sec, 2. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) at 0.067sec, 3. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR) 0.117, 4. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 0.143, 5. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Aprilia) 0.193, 6. Enea Bastianini (ITA/Ducati-Gresini) 0.194, 7. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 0.277, 8. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.278, 9. Jorge Martin (ESP/Ducati-Pramac) 0.292, 10. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 0.342
