2025 Argentina MotoGP: Marc Marquez fastest in Practice, Pecco Bagnaia crashes
Marquez sets new lap record to end Friday top
Marc Marquez blitzed the lap record at the MotoGP Argentina Grand Prix to lead Practice ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, as Pecco Bagnaia crashed late on.
Championship leader Marquez has been in strong from from the off at Termas de Rio Hondo, and ultimately completed a clean sweep of sessions on Friday.
Holding the lap record at the Argentinian venue since 2014, he finally went underneath that old benchmark with a 1m37.295s to see out the hour-long Practice session on Friday afternoon 0.135s clear of the field.
He headed VR46 Ducati’s Di Giannantonio, who found a 1m37.430s at the end of the session, while Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing) completed the top three.
Pecco Bagnaia narrowly held onto a Q2 place at the end of Practice despite crashing with six minutes to go while beginning his final time attack run.
After the first 10 minutes of running, Alex Marquez led the way with a 1m38.205s on his GP24 before Marc Marquez took over on the factory GP25 with a 1m38.184s on a fresh medium rear.
He was briefly pipped by LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco with a 1m38.006s, but Marquez produced a 1m37.739s to get close to the lap record as the session dipped into the final 40 minutes.
The lap record would be initially beaten by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, the 2023 Argentina GP winner guiding his RS-GP to a 1m37.510s with 15 minutes remaining.
Marquez eked ahead with a 1m37.438s moments later, before cementing top spot with a final lap of 1m37.295s to see out Friday fastest of all.
Di Giannantonio lifted himself from outside of the top 10 to second with his final lap, which pushed Bagnaia to the brink.
Bagnaia started Practice stronger than he finished FP1 and was inside the top six when he fell from his factory Ducati at Turn 2 with around six minutes to go.
Unable to rejoin the session, he watched on nervously from his garage as his name tumbled down to the fringes of the top 10.
He managed to secure a Q2 place by just 0.021s over Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura.
Alex Marquez sailed through to Q2 in third ahead of Bezzecchi and the leading KTM of Brad Binder, while Alex Rins used Marc Marquez as a reference to leap up to sixth on his factory Yamaha.
Zarco recovered from a crash at Turn 2 midway through the session to finish seventh for LCR Honda, while Fabio Quartararo ensured two Yamahas inside the top 10 in eighth.
Quartararo had stationed himself behind Bagnaia for the start of his final run when the Ducati rider crashed, but was still able to produce a 1m37.818s to get into Q2.
Pedro Acosta was ninth on the sister factory KTM, though crashed after the chequered flag at Turn 2 in an odd slow-speed tumble.
