Fabio Quartararo quickest in Catalunya MotoGP FP1 as top riders show early form
2020 Catalunya MotoGP - Free Practice Results (1)
The top four in the 2020 MotoGP World Championship standings filled the leading positions as the Catalunya MotoGP kicked off in Spain with Fabio Quartararo comfortably quickest over Andrea Dovizioso.
As is becoming a frequent occurrence for the Frenchman in his second season of MotoGP, Quartararo was in fine form out of the box on the Petronas SRT Yamaha to take control early on at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before steadily chipping away at his own benchmark.
Eventually posting a best of 1min 40.431secs on his final revolution, it placed him four tenths up on championship leader Dovizioso, who enjoyed arguably the best start to a race weekend this year in second place.
Coming into the weekend unclear of whether his inconsistent Ducati would have pace, the Italian made full use of trailing Joan Mir before going on to play best of the rest to Quartararo.
Mir endured an eventful start to his weekend, suffering an unusual crash early on at the tricky downhill Turn 5 left-hander which, though low speed, sent his Suzuki GSX-RR somersaulting through the gravel trap. Undeterred, he returned to track later to post the third fastest time, ahead of the fourth rider to currently sit within four points of the top in the standings, Maverick Vinales.
Local hope Aleix Espargaro fired in a quick late lap to climb to fifth on the Aprilia, ahead of Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi.
Making his first FP1 appearance since Styria - despite injuring his ankle on Wednesday - Cal Crutchlow hit the ground running with a solid run to ninth position on the LCR Honda, while Miguel Oliveira rounded out the top ten.
Save for Dovizioso, it was a disappointing start to the weekend for Ducati broadly with Johann Zarco its next best representative in 13th, while Misano standout Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller were 15th and 18th respectively.
It was also a low key opening for KTM beyond Oliveira, with Iker Lecuona 14th - after crashing late on at Turn 2 - Pol Espargaro and Brad Binder 13th, 16th and 21st respectively.
