MotoGP Barcelona GP: Nakagami tops first practice from…

LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami led the way in first MotoGP practice for the Barcelona Grand Prix after completing a late run on fresh tyres.

Fitting a new soft tyre on the front of his Honda RC213V, Nakagami posted a time of 1m40.510s with just two minutes left on the clock to start his final weekend in MotoGP at the top of the leaderboard.

The Japanese rider had suffered an early crash at Turn 2, but was able to rejoin the session later on.

Pedro Acosta had led the majority of FP1 with a time of 1m40.912s on his Tech3 GasGas bike, despite being caught out in a crash caused by his team-mate Raul Fernandez.

Less than five minutes into the session, Fernandez had clipped the bike of team-mate Acosta at the exit of Turn 5, leaving both of them on the ground.

Although both riders walked away from the incident, the race control was forced to deploy a red flag to recover the stricken GasGas-branded RC16 of Fernandez and repair the damage to the air fence.

When the session resumed after a 10-minute delay, championship leader Jorge Martin immediately shot to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m41.820s, before lowering the benchmark further to 1m40.971s.

Gresini's Alex Marquez was the next rider to break the 1m41s barrier, going half a tenth quicker than Martin, before Acosta edged him out by 0.003s on his second bike to take over the top spot.

The 20-year-old's time remained quickest until Nakagami's late soft tyre run, but he was still able to finish second ahead of the younger Marquez.

KTM stablemate Brad Binder was another rider to make a late improvement, jumping up to fourth place on a 1m40.952s, pushing Pramac's Martin down to fifth.

Martin was followed by factory Ducatis of Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, with the two-time champion ending up seventh and half a second off Nakagami's best effort.

Aprilia's charge was led by Maverick Vinales in eighth, while Jack Miller made it three bikes from the KTM group in ninth.

The top 10 was rounded out by Marc Marquez on the second Gresini bike, as he shaded the lead Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo and the Honda ridden by Luca Marini.

Aleix Espargaro, completing his final weekend in MotoGP for Aprilia, was classified 14th behind the Pramac bike of Franco Morbidelli.

Apart from Nakagami and the Tech3 duo, Michele Pirro was another rider to suffer a fall in the early moments of FP1, the Ducati tester ending up on the ground at Turn 5 as he got to grips with the VR46 GP23 bike normally ridden by Fabio di Giannantonio.

However, there were drama moments after the end of the session, as Bagnaia hit the deck at Turn 1 after a run-in with Vinales. Replays showed the Italian running at leisurely speed after completing a practice start when Vinales went around the outside to overtake him, seemingly causing him to lose balance. There was no contact between the pair.

Photos From Barcelona GP Practice

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Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	18	1'40.501		143.461
2	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	16	+0.411 1'40.912	0.411	142.876
3	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	20	+0.414 1'40.915	0.003	142.872
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	22	+0.451 1'40.952	0.037	142.820
5	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	18	+0.470 1'40.971	0.019	142.793
6	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	22	+0.568 1'41.069	0.098	142.655
7	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	18	+0.582 1'41.083	0.014	142.635
8	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	21	+0.626 1'41.127	0.044	142.573
9	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	19	+0.677 1'41.178	0.051	142.501
10	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	19	+0.695 1'41.196	0.018	142.475
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	20	+0.745 1'41.246	0.050	142.405
12	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	21	+0.858 1'41.359	0.113	142.246
13	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	20	+0.895 1'41.396	0.037	142.194
14	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	17	+0.897 1'41.398	0.002	142.192
15	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	20	+0.980 1'41.481	0.083	142.075
16	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	18	+1.007 1'41.508	0.027	142.038
17	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	19	+1.152 1'41.653	0.145	141.835
18	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	17	+1.210 1'41.711	0.058	141.754
19	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	21	+1.216 1'41.717	0.006	141.746
20	M. Pirro Team VR46	51	Ducati	15	+1.397 1'41.898	0.181	141.494
21	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	19	+1.437 1'41.938	0.040	141.438
22	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	18	+1.569 1'42.070	0.132	141.256
23	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6	Honda	19	+1.769 1'42.270	0.200	140.979
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