Jorge Martin fastest as Marc Marquez sits out wet Aragon MotoGP warm-up

Morning warm-up saw Marc Marquez missing from the top of the Aragon MotoGP timesheets for the first time this weekend.

Instead, the Sprint winner was 22nd and last, without even a credited lap time.

But the reason was obvious: Overnight rain had soaked the track and, with the sun already shining and dry track expected for this afternoon’s grand prix, the Gresini Ducati rider elected not to take any risks.

Jorge Martin, who regained the title leader from Francesco Bagnaia by two points with second to Marquez on Saturday, was fastest in the wet by 0.192s from the KTMs of Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez.

Enea Bastianini and factory Ducati team-mate Bagnaia completed the top five.

After several riders criticised the filthy starting grid on Saturday, track cleaning (pictured) took place with a special practice start period on the grid also added to the end of warm-up.

Bagnaia, among those to get massive wheelspin off the line in the Sprint before struggling to ninth with a front tyre issue, was unable to engage his front holeshot device during this morning’s practice starts.

The Ducati team were also seen trying to wave Bagnaia to do the practice starts from his third place on the grid. But Bagnaia’s options were limited since riders must wait their turn behind those already stationary, for safety reasons.

Just as on Friday night, the rain will bring more dirt onto the circuit and reduce grip levels in the dry.

That also plays into Marquez’s hands, having warned yesterday that Martin and Bagnaia would close the gap if the track improved and grip levels continued to increase on Sunday.

But the opposite has now happened.

As an illustration of how much grip levels on the new asphalt drop after rain, Marquez set a record 1m 45.801s in Friday practice. But his Saturday pole time was only 1m 46.766s and his fastest Sprint lap a 1m 47.284s.

A dirty track - some riders were seen wiping spots of mud from their visor during warm-up - also makes the front tyre suffer more.

A new unknown will come in the form of the rear tyre.

The soft, used by all riders in the Sprint, has been removed from today's race due to blistering, meaning everyone will now have to switch to the medium.

Marquez, starting from pole on the cleaner side of the track, didn’t bother with the wet practice starts.