Spanish Grand Prix FP1 & 2 Results | Marquez crashes twice, Quartararo fastest

Practice for the fifth round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez took place in perfect, warm, dry conditions, despite some damp patches in the morning. 

Before track action got underway, it was already confirmed that Raul Fernandez would not be taking part in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix as a result of the injuries sustained in his crash in Portimao qualifying last weekend.

The aforementioned damp patches would claim one significant victim in the morning session, as Fabio Quartararo high-sided in the final corner in FP1, taking a rather painful blow to his groin area from the rear tyre of his YZR-M1. 

The Frenchman returned to the track later in FP1, but was unable to improve, and was clearly uncomfortable as he made a few more mistakes. But, anyway, he was able to finish FP1 in the top five, while the morning session was topped by Joan Mir, who led a Suzuki 1-2 ahead of his teammate, Alex Rins. 

By the afternoon, the track was almost completely dry, meaning conditions were perfect for early mileage on race tyres to try to understand which Michelin rubber should be fitted to the bikes for Sunday afternoon.

But, early on, the riders were hot lapping to take advantage of the first full-dry conditions of the weekend, and the early pace was set by Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia, who were able to set consistent time-topping pace in the first 10-15 minutes of the session.

As it turned out, there was still one critical wet patch on the track. Marc Marquez clipped it while being passed into turn nine by Miguel Oliveira. The Spaniard was cruising back to the pits after crashing and remounting at turn six and, while going wide to keep out of Oliveira’s way, he took his eye off the track in front of him, and was totally perplexed when he lost the front, not realising he had hit the wet patch. The #93 was perfectly fine after the crash, though, and was back out later in FP2, but only went on to finish 19th.

By the time Marquez had crashed, Aleix Espargaro had hit the top of the times, and with Maverick Vinales in fifth place both Aprilias were in the top five with 10 minutes to go in the session. A time from Bagnaia with 11 minutes to go pumped Vinales back to sixth, and the stunning part about that time was that the top five at that point were covered by 0.034 seconds.

That difference was temporarily stretched out by Takaaki Nakagami, who was the first to fire the gun with the late-session time attacks, with the Japanese hitting the top of the times with seven minutes to go. 

In the end, it was Francesco Bagnaia who topped the times at the end of FP2 by 0.201 seconds ahead of Enea Bastianini, while Francesco Bagnaia completed the top three. Jorge Martin was fourth, ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro, Alex Rins, Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller who completed the top 10. 

Full MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix FP1 and FP2 combined times are below. 

2022 Grand Prix of Spain | MotoGP FP1 + FP2 Results