MotoGP grid numbers will be boosted by the attendance of three wild-card riders at Jerez this weekend. Headlining the trio will be home star Dani Pedrosa, whose Jerez race appearance was officially announced by KTM during the previous COTA event. Pedrosa delighted the Spanish fans by leading opening practice last season, qualifying on the second row and finishing sixth (Sprint) and seventh (Grand Prix) in the races. The Spaniard's last wild-card appearance, at Misano, also saw the debut of a carbon fibre chassis, which Pedrosa took to the brink of the podium in both races. Might KTM unveil a similar surprise this weekend? Meanwhile, Aprilia and Honda have confirmed to Crash.net that their respective test riders, Lorenzo Savadori and Stefan Bradl, will also compete at Jerez, raising grid numbers to 25. Jerez is a popular event for wild-card entries since factory test riders are already familiar with the circuit from private testing and - having taken part in the grand prix weekend - are already up to speed for the following Official test on Monday. MotoGP rules allow a maximum of three wild-cards at each Grand Prix round. Ducati is the only factory currently unable to field wild-cards due to it’s ‘A’ ranking in the new concessions format. No Cal? They must have something to test!
https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/n...vOyZrkGwKX5nXRsyarq4wFqNyg0Qo&mibextid=K35XfP YAMAHA TO TEST COMPLETELY NEW MOTOGP BIKE AT JEREZ Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins will get to trial an all-new Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike during the post-Spanish Grand Prix test at Jerez on Monday, Motorsport.com understands. Well that answers that.
I bet it’s totally indistinguishable from the current one, which was ‘completely new’ at Valencia from memory
Peccccoooooooooooo!!!!! (I suspect it wont be the first time the lap record's broken this weekend) Spanish MotoGP: Statement performance from record setting Bagnaia | MotoGP | Crash Times from Day 1 2024 Spanish MotoGP, Jerez - Practice (2) Results Pos Rider Nat Team Time/Diff Lap Max 1 Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati Lenovo (GP24) 1'36.025s 22/23 293k 2 Maverick Viñales SPA Aprilia Racing (RS-GP24) +0.100s 20/24 293k 3 Marc Marquez SPA Gresini Ducati (GP23) +0.143s 25/26 292k 4 Marco Bezzecchi ITA VR46 Ducati (GP23) +0.339s 19/20 297k 5 Jorge Martin SPA Pramac Ducati (GP24) +0.410s 20/25 292k 6 Pedro Acosta SPA Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 (RC16)* +0.414s 23/24 296k 7 Aleix Espargaro SPA Aprilia Racing (RS-GP24) +0.421s 19/20 292k 8 Enea Bastianini ITA Ducati Lenovo (GP24) +0.455s 20/26 295k 9 Fabio Di Giannantonio ITA VR46 Ducati (GP23) +0.511s 20/21 292k 10 Alex Marquez SPA Gresini Ducati (GP23) +0.514s 19/24 291k 11 Brad Binder RSA Red Bull KTM (RC16) +0.619s 19/22 296k 12 Franco Morbidelli ITA Pramac Ducati (GP24) +0.686s 17/22 293k 13 Jack Miller AUS Red Bull KTM (RC16) +0.875s 22/22 295k 14 Daniel Pedrosa SPA KTM Test Rider (RC16) +0.919s 23/23 300k 15 Alex Rins SPA Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) +0.934s 18/23 295k 16 Takaaki Nakagami JPN LCR Honda (RC213V) +0.944s 24/24 291k 17 Raul Fernandez SPA Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP23) +1.086s 16/21 292k 18 Johann Zarco FRA LCR Honda (RC213V) +1.252s 22/23 294k 19 Miguel Oliveira POR Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP24) +1.317s 23/24 292k 20 Fabio Quartararo FRA Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) +1.357s 17/22 295k 21 Joan Mir SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) +1.451s 25/26 293k 22 Augusto Fernandez SPA Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 (RC16) +1.586s 18/23 293k 23 Stefan Bradl GER Honda Test Rider (RC213V) +1.684s 23/24 296k 24 Luca Marini ITA Repsol Honda (RC213V) +1.813s 24/24 290k 25 Lorenzo Savadori ITA Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP) +1.877s 20/22 292k
Bet the Spanish fans loved seeing Acosta and Pedrosa racing on track side by side. Pedro looked like he was getting held up all session long though (got stuck behind Dani and then Bez at the sharp end of the session). Marquez could be dangerous if him and his team sort out the time they're losing in the final corner. Cant see any issue in sticking a couple of quid on Pedro for a win of some description. Be that sprint or long race.
Wondered why they were taking their time to pay up. Seems Fabios been given an 8 second penalty for low tyre pressures and Pedrosa promoted to P3. What a farce and a shame to spoil an epic race in that way.
Hell of a race. The tyre pressure rules are a farce and need to be kicked in to touch. Bedlam on track today, this explains what was happening..https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...rez-crashes-including-marc-marquez-heartbreak
Pedro. Second in the championship. Watching his practice/qualifying this morning shows how fast his reflexes are, lost the front going in to a corner and saved it, reflexes like….the old MM.
Although you cant see anyone but 93 winning tomorrow (if he can stay upright), he's lucky Mir didnt go down when he rode into him otherwise he'd be looking at a long lap. And no disrespect to Dani because hes clearly still fast as fk but that last lap reminded me why i found him so dull when he was racing full time. No cajones or wish to have a battle with FQ whatsoever on the last lap, for a podium! Marquez had the dream team mate in wee Dani. No threat whatsoever.
I get that in his career he needed to be a bit more dirty or ruthless. i think today though he won't risk sticking it up the inside to get on the box. he doesn't want or need to mess around with the guys who have a whole season ahead of them.
As usual a very soft penalty, dropping just 1 place. Luckily he did not hurt anyone..this time. Red mist, or just the same old MM..he has been riding well too. Needs to stay on the bike a bit more, and everyone blamed the Honda.. Becoming a farce with the bloody tyre pressure fiasco too. Collect third place medal and then demoted later. Are they going to do this shit, say if the final race of the season comes down to a few points..just to reverse the decision for tyre pressure? Top, top race though. So good I watched it again.
There's too many Spanish riders in motogp for me, six in the first ten positions. I guess now that the private Ducati team's winning the championship, the Ducati factory have to embrace them as they'll still be the overall manufactures winner at the end game.
Looks like it’s the same conditions today. Pecco digi and Pedro all gone down in practice this morning. Red flagged cos Pedro flew into the air fence at turn 7.
Yes he's a show off / poser, this's the real test / race today and let's hope Pecco stays on the damn thing this time around.
Absolute masterclass from Pecco in the main race today. Sad for Jorge but it's livened up the championship. Brilliant race.
