18:35
Good lap from Zarco while shadowing Bagnaia. He's moved up to sixth on a new soft rear tyre.
Pecco Bagnaia, Ducati Corse, 2025 Americas MotoGP
© Gold and Goose
2025 Qatar MotoGP: Friday practice as it happened
Text coverage of the 2025 MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix Friday practice sessions as they happened
The fourth round of the 2025 MotoGP World Championship is the Qatar Grand Prix from the Lusail International Circuit.
The championship battle has effectively been reset after a dramatic third round of the campaign in America, which saw the so-far dominant Marc Marquez crash out of the lead of the grand prix.
This opened the door for factory Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia to score his first win of the season, while another second-place finish for Alex Marquez put him at the top of the standings for the first time in his MotoGP career.
Alex Marquez leads Marc Marquez by one point coming into this weekend's Qatar GP, while Bagnaia - who won at Lusail last year - is just 12 points adrift.
They will all be contenders for victory this weekend, as will VR46 Ducati's Fabio Di Giannantonio, who returned to the podium last time out for the first time since his breakthrough Qatar GP win back in 2023.
The big news coming into this weekend, however, is the return of reigning world champion Jorge Martin, who has been absent since day one of testing thanks to numerous injury woes.
He will make his Aprilia debut this weekend having completed just 13 laps on the RS-GP this year and will be looking to simply get through the round without incident as he tries to accelerate his adaptation to his new bike.
Aprilia has made a decent start to 2025 and will be looking to carry that forward at a decent circuit for the bike.
KTM will be hoping to kickstart its campaign in Qatar having finished on the podium in both races at the circuit last year, while the continued progress of the Japanese marques will be an intriguing subplot to the weekend.
FP1 begins at 1:45pm BST, while Practice is at 6pm BST.
11 Apr 2025
18:33
Good speed from both factory team Ducati riders on medium rubber this evening.
18:33
Bagnaia moves up to second with a 1m51.773s on a fresh medium rear.
18:31
Crash - Augusto Fernandez
Fernandez is the latest crasher at Turn 4. He's ok.
18:30
Standings after 30 minutes
- A.Marquez
- M.Marquez
- Morbidelli
- Di Giannantonio
- Bagnaia
- R.Fernandez
- Mir
- Aldeguer
- Acosta
- Ogura
18:30
Marc Marquez gets close to retaking top spot on a medium rear tyre, putting in a 1m51.796s.
18:28
Alex Marquez goes top on a new soft rear tyre with a 1m51.704s, while Morbidelli has gone third. Di Giannantonio up to fourth.
18:26
Ai Ogura lifts himself into seventh on a fresh soft rear.
18:26
Couple of movers in the top 10. New soft tyre for Morbidelli puts him up to fourth, while Raul Fernandez has gone eighth.
18:24
Enea Bastianini has gone for a blast on a fresh soft rear on his Tech3 KTM and moves up to ninth with a 1m52..804s.
18:23
Chantra is back on track following his earlier spill.
18:23
Marc Marquez has come back out and has a new medium rear fitted to his factory Ducati. Let's see what his pace is like on that tyre.
18:19
Martin has completed seven laps on this run and is 16th currently. Certainly looks like he's getting a little more comfortable on the Aprilia with each lap.
18:15
Marc Marquez has been reeling off some pretty consistent high 1m52s laps on this medium front/soft rear tyre combination. The best race lap at Lusail was a 1m52.6s set last year.
So, already, Marc Marquez is looking right on the pace this evening.
18:13
Another good start to a session in Qatar for Honda. Mir is currently fourth, while Zarco sits seventh.
18:12
Alex Marquez moves up to second, cutting Marc Marquez's advantage to 0.160s.
18:10
Standings after 10 minutes
- M.Marquez
- Bagnaia
- Mir
- Acosta
- Quartararo
- A.Marquez
- Zarco
- Binder
- Miller
- Morbidelli
18:08
Bagnaia improves to second and cuts Marquez's lead to 0.323s.
18:08
Jorge Martin has made a big gain already to a 1m53.169s down in 12th.
18:07
Crash - Somkiat Chantra
Chantra has gone down at Turn 4. He's up and ok.
18:06
Which is immediately bested by Marc Marquez, who puts in the best lap of the day so far - 1m51.810s to go over half a second clear of Honda's Joan Mir.
18:06
Alex Marquez now goes top with a 1m52.5s.
18:04
First laps on the board and a 1m52.692s on a medium tyre has put Zarco top of the pile.
18:00
Green flag
Pitlane is open for Practice.
17:55
Just five minutes till pitlane opens.
