Despite finishing his home Catalunya MotoGP Sprint in eleventh place, where he had started, Marc Marquez insisted “it was a very good day for us”.
Fabio Quartararo finished the Catalunya MotoGP Sprint race in just 18th place as the low grip conditions continued to taunt the Frenchman and his Yamaha M1.
Ivan Ortola shook off his fall earlier in the day to position himself perfectly to take pole during a late scrap in qualifying for the Moto3 Catalan Grand Prix.
Full Qualifying results and grid line-up for the Saturday Sprint and main Sunday race at the Catalunya MotoGP at Barcelona, round 11 of 20 in the 2023 world championship.
Marc Marquez was the top Honda rider on Friday in Catalunya, but with all four RCVs at the bottom of the timesheets the factory’s MotoGP woes were exposed for all to see.
Fabio Quartararo may be doing his best to accept the reality of Yamaha’s current MotoGP situation, but 17th place in Friday practice at Catalunya was still a bitter pill to swallow.
Aleix Espargaro and Aprilia continued their dominant start to the Catalan MotoGP after the Spaniard broke the official lap record in second practice, which he set last season.