2025 Spanish MotoGP: Alex Marquez comes from crash to top Practice with lap record
Alex Marquez suffered nasty crash in Practice but led session at Jerez
Gresini MotoGP rider Alex Marquez brushed off a fast crash that stopped the Practice session at the Spanish Grand Prix to lead the way with a new Jerez lap record.
Alex Marquez suffered a crash in FP1 this morning in Spain, but sustained no ill-effects from it and was able to top the session on his Gresini-run GP24 Ducati.
In the opening stages of the hour-long Practice, while chasing Marc Marquez on a fast lap, Alex Marquez fell going through Turn 5 and bashed himself around.
His bike popped the air fence and necessitated a red flag to repair the barrier, while there was some doubt about Alex Marquez rejoining the session.
Able to get back out in the final 15 minutes of Practice, Alex Marquez went on to produce a new lap record of 1m35.991s to lead Pecco Bagnaia by 0.103 seconds.
The afternoon session at Jerez proved to be a crash-fest, with Honda’s Joan Mir, Pramac’s Jack Miller, Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and KTM’s Brad Binder all going down.
Of that group, Quartararo and Mir were able to make it into a direct Q2 place.
At the time of the red flag, Marc Marquez led the way on his factory Ducati with a 1m37.204s, which he improved when the session restarted to a 1m37.157s.
The likes of Quartararo, LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, KTM’s Pedro Acosta, VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Bagnaia all took stints leading the session.
But with just under three minutes remaining, Alex Marquez returned to the top of the standings with a 1m35.991s to see out the afternoon fastest of all.
Bagnaia was second ahead of Morbidelli, while Marc Marquez’s last flying lap almost ended in disaster at Turn 6 and left him in fourth.
Quartararo was on a lap set to put him top of the pile when he crashed at Turn 13 with just under 15 minutes to go.
Able to get back to pitlane on his preferred motorcycle, he survived numerous yellow flags to jump up to fifth and bag a Q2 sport with a 1m36.419s.
Fermin Aldeguer was sixth on the sister Gresini Ducati, while Zarco was the leading Honda in seventh ahead of Acosta, Di Giannantonio and Mir.
Binder missed out on a Q2 spot by just 0.055s on his factory KTM in 11th, while Marco Bezzecchi was the leading Aprilia in 12th.
Miller was left in 13th after his crash, while both Trackhouse riders also got stuck in the Q1 places after their tumbles.
Aleix Espargaro was 21st on his Honda at the end of the first day of his wildcard.
