Marini fastest in FP1 at COTA as Bezzecchi suffers late fall

Luca Marini has claimed top spot in the opening MotoGP practice at COTA, although championship leader and teammate Marco Bezzecchi finished outside the top ten after suffering a late fall.

Robert Jones

14 Apr 2023

Luca Marini, Ducati MotoGP Argentina 2023

With less than two minutes of FP1 in the books, stand-in for Pol Espargaro, Jonas Folger ran into trouble and was given the black and orange flag.

Smoke was coming from the rear of Folger’s Tech 3 GASGAS KTM as loose bodywork seemed to be rubbing against the rear tyre.

Joining Folger in returning to pit lane early on, was Miguel Oliveira who was making his first appearance since being taken out of the Portuguese Grand Prix by Marc Marquez.

Continuing his stunning form of the last two rounds, Marquez was the rider to beat early on as he broke into the 2m 4s barrier with ease.

Marquez was close to four tenths clear of Jorge Martin before improving for the third consecutive lap. However, that margin was cut to under a tenth when Alex Rins put his LCR Honda into P2.

Keen to extend his advantage once again, Marquez then dropped his time to a 2:04.222s which was three tenths quicker than Rins’ effort.

Francesco Bagnaia, who lost the championship lead in Argentina after crashing out of the Grand Prix, made it a Ducati 1-2 with 15 minutes gone, although Marquez was still 0.167s clear of the factory rider.

Leading KTM’s charge in seventh place with over half the session gone, Jack Miller suffered a slow crash at the first-gear turn 12.

Miller got back to his feet immediately before looking back at the corner, bemused by the fall.

One of the first riders to switch to a new rear tyre, Quartararo used the extra performance from the medium compound to go quickest by 0.021s.

Quartararo then set four red sectors on his very next lap to improve by nearly a tenth of a second, although it wasn’t enough to break under the 2m 4s barrier.

Luca Marini was the next rider to struggle going through turn 12, but unlike Miller, the Ducati rider remained aboard his machine although he did run off the circuit.

Trying to find more time after dropping down to 11th, Miller got it wrong against turn 12 as he slid his RC16 into the left-hander in spectacular fashion which resulted in him running wide.

After switching to a soft front and rear tyre combination, Maverick Vinales proved to be the rider on a mission as he went fastest and broke into the 2m 3s bracket.

Then came a big moment for Mooney VR46 Ducati with both its riders, albeit for very different reasons as Bezzecchi crashed at turn 12, while Luca Marini went on to claim top spot away from Vinales.

Marini was quickly moved down to second by Quartararo, however, the response from the Italian was immediate as a stunning final two sectors saw him blast his way to the top of the leaderboard by over five tenths.

Marquez reduced the gap to three tenths before Quartararo’s final lap saw him challenge Marini. But neither rider had an answer as Marini held on.