Bezzecchi ahead of Alex Marquez in warm-up, Marc Marquez “will try same strategy”

A switch from soft to medium rear tyres reshuffled the MotoGP order in Sunday warm-up at Catalunya, with Marco Bezzecchi leading the way.

After being taken out of ninth place by Fermin Aldeguer in Saturday’s Sprint and finishing the session in the medical centre, a bruised Bezzecchi responded by putting his Aprilia on top of the timesheets.

“It’s been a difficult weekend until now but the speed is there,” said Bezzecchi, who suffered a contusion in the left forearm and hip in Saturday's accident. 

“Starting 12th is never easy, but I’ll try to make the best. This track is critical for the tyres but it’s also cool because the race [order] can change many times.”

Pole qualifier Alex Marquez, who crashed from a safe Sprint lead, underlined his pace by finishing second fastest in warm-up.

“I think the medium tyre could help me more,” Alex said. “I was really fast [with it] on Friday. We have the speed, we have the feeling. So we’ll try our best.

“I think we can challenge Marc today, but we know the last ten laps will be tough for everybody, and Marc is so good at managing the tyre, so it will be tough.”

Marc Marquez, who took his 15th consecutive victory after Alex’s Sprint exit, was only ninth this morning but also stressed tyre management will outweigh outright speed.

“Today we will try the same strategy, try to be behind Alex, he’s the fastest,” Marc explained. “It will be a long race because with the tyres, the drop is quite big, front and rear.

“I always feel better in the second part of the race. But the first part of Alex is super fast.”

Marc must avoid losing more than two points to Alex today if he is to have a mathematical chance of clinching the title at Misano next weekend.

Meanwhile, factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia's grim weekend finally improved with the fifth fastest lap time, albeit 0.7s behind Bezzecchi.

Fellow former champion Fabio Quartararo, the Sprint runner-up for Yamaha, was again competitive with third place (+0.385s) in warm-up: “Today the first laps will be more difficult but hopefully we can be fast and maintain the tyres.”

After all riders used the soft rear in the Sprint, Michelin has recommended the medium for the full-length grand prix. 

KTM’s Pedro Acosta, twelfth in warm-up, hinted he might roll the dice and run the soft again: “Let’s see which tyre we decide to go with, but I think we can make a good race.”

“It’ll be a long day protecting tyres and ice-skating around here,” added team-mate Brad Binder, one place ahead in eleventh.

Franco Morbidelli and Aldeguer have long-lap penalties for their Sprint collisions with Aprilia riders Jorge Martin and Bezzecchi respectively. Both practiced the long lap in warm-up.

Lorenzo Savadori also has a long-lap penalty carried over from Sachsenring, while Joan Mir will serve a three-place grid drop.