UPDATED: Missing freight has arrived, FP3 dropped from Saturday schedule
The likes of Gresini and VR46 - the worst affected by the delay - began unpacking at 4am and will be working through until the end of Saturday.
H 04:00 am
— Mooney VR46 Racing Team (@VR46RacingTeam) April 2, 2022
Good Morning!
From #TermasdeRioHondo
Finally here the are!#MotoGP #Moto2 #MooneyVR46RacingTeam #ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/C4PJW46uIY
With MotoGP's missing freight now nearing Argentina, having arrived in Brazil, it looks increasingly likely that the delayed Termas de Rio Hondo event will begin on Saturday morning.
And it will do so at the even earlier time of 8:15, after further modifications were made to an already heavily-revised Saturday schedule.
With all of Friday's track action cancelled due to the delayed freight, which has left the likes of VR46 and Gresini with 'nothing', the original Saturday plan was for the MotoGP class to have three Free Practice sessions (two for Moto3 and Moto2) followed by Qualifying 1 & 2.
But the latest amendments have seen the 30-minute MotoGP FP3 dropped in favour of longer one-hour FP1 and FP2 sessions, which will now start after the Moto3 and Moto2 classes have finished FP2.
That means the opening MotoGP track session of the weekend has been pushed back from 10:35 to 12:35, giving teams two more hours to prepare their machines and pit boxes after what is likely to be a long night.
Despite the loss of FP3, it is assumed that the cut-off point for the top ten riders receiving direct access to MotoGP Qualifying 2 will still be (as announced yesterday) at the end of FP2, meaning no practice session purely dedicated to race set-up.
Probably as a result, Sunday's warm-up has been extended to 40-minutes for the premier-class, double the normal time.
The pair of free practice sessions for Moto3 and Moto2 will now be 50 minutes long, while Qualifying 1 & 2 for all classes remains unchanged at 15-minutes each.
Updated schedule - 2022 Argentine MotoGP
Saturday
08:15-09:05 Moto3 FP1 (12:15-13:05 UK)
09:20-10:10 Moto2 FP1 (13:20-14:10 UK)
10:25-11:15 Moto3 FP2 (14:25-15:15 UK)
11:30-12:20 Moto2 FP2 (15:30-16:20 UK)
12:35-13:35 MotoGP FP1 (16:35-17:35 UK)
13:50-14:05 Moto3 Qualifying 1 (17:50-18:05 UK)
14:15-14:30 Moto3 Qualifying 2 (18:15-18:30 UK)
14:45-15:00 Moto2 Qualifying 1 (18:45-19:00 UK)
15:10-15:25 Moto2 Qualifying 2 (19:10-19:25 UK)
15:40-16:40 MotoGP FP2 (19:40-20:40 UK)
17:05-17:20 MotoGP Qualifying 1 (21:05-21:20 UK)
17:30-17:45 MotoGP Qualifying 2 (21:30-21:45 UK)
Sunday
09:20-09:40 Moto3 Warm-up (13:20-13:40 UK)
09:50-10:10 Moto2 Warm-up (13:50-14:10 UK)
10:20-11:00 MotoGP Warm-up (14:20-15:00 UK)
12:00 Moto3 Race - 21 laps (16:00 UK)
13:20 Moto2 Race - 23 laps (15:20 UK)
15:00 MotoGP Race - 25 laps (19:00 UK)
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
