The French Johann zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) “overwhelmed” all its rivals in the first free practice session for the Emilia Romagna MotoGP Grand Prix, on the “Marco Simoncelli” circuit of Misano Adriatico, riding 1.4 seconds faster than his immediate pursuer, the Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V).
Zarco set a best time in adverse wet conditions of 1: 42.374 which was 1.4 seconds faster than Marquez1.8 compared to Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) and with more than three seconds on the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1).
Àlex Márquez (Honda RC 213 V) was the first involuntary protagonist of the session when he went to the ground in turn two, without consequences, and shortly after he followed, but in turn eight, the South African Brad binder (KTM RC 16), whose brother Darryn, which disputes the Moto3 World Championship, was confirmed this Thursday as rider of the second Yamaha of the satellite team in which he will form in 2022 together with the Italian Andrea Dovizioso.
The asphalt continued in the same bad conditions as when the Moto3 session took place, wet from a fine rain, which evidently bothered the powerful MotoGP riders.
The first MotoGP session began with the dominance of the official Ducati riders, which placed the Australian Jack Miller and to italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia in the top positions, followed by the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16) and Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), while the world leader, the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), showed no signs of feeling comfortable and was ninth, although in the end he was relegated to eighteenth position without risking the least throughout the session.
Another French, Johann zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), a great specialist in these conditions, was climbing positions during the session to climb first to second position and shortly after to take the lead after surpassing Jack Miller, while the Spanish Iker Lecuona (KTM RC 16) did the same with “Pecco” Bagnaia to get third on the timesheets.
In the final minutes, a close contest was established for the first position between Zarco and Bagnaia, which ended up favoring the Frenchman after the Italian crashed at turn eight when he set fast lap partial times in the first two sections with more than three tenths of a second ahead of Zarco’s, but in the end relegated him to sixth square.
After Zarco and Marquez just Jack Miller, in front of Jorge Martin (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha YZR M 1), Bagnaia and Oliveira.