2025 Valencia MotoGP: Friday practice delayed after red-flag Moto2 crash
Valencia MotoGP practice will not start on time after a crash in the Moto2 session
The opening practice session ahead of the 2025 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix has been delayed following a red-flag crash in Friday morning’s Moto2 FP1 session.
The 22nd and final round of the 2025 MotoGP season was due to begin at 10:45am local time (9:45am GMT), with the 45-minute FP1 session.
But it has been hit with a significant delay following a crash in this morning’s Moto2 FP1 session at Turn 6, which involved Ayumu Sasaki and Adrian Huertas.
Replays of the incident showed Huertas had a big highside, while Sasaki appears to have crashed at the same point seconds later.
Huertas was moving at the scene of the crash but had to be taken away by the marshals on a stretcher, while Sasaki was able to walk away on his own.
The red flag was brought out 36 minutes and 35 seconds remaining of the 40-minute session.
This led to a lengthy clean-up operation at the corner for damp patches on the track, which appears to have been the cause of the crashes.
Moments before those two falls, Izan Guevara suffered a front-end spill at the same corner.
It’s unclear if the damp patches are from any earlier rain or have seeped through the surface.
The Moto2 session restarted at 10:25am local time, while MotoGP FP1 is expected to get underway at 11:10am now.
Friday will see two practice sessions run for the MotoGP class, with FP1 followed by the hour-long Practice from 3pm local time this afternoon.
Practice will determine which riders go through directly to Q2 in Saturday's qualifying, with the top 10 at the end of this afternoon's session gaining an automatic entry.
The rest will go through Q1, with two spaces in Q2 up for grabs in that segment.
This weekend's Valencia Grand Prix marks the first since 2023, after last year's event had to be cancelled just weeks before due to deadly flooding in the region.
On Thursday, representatives from Dorna - including CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta - visited various areas worst affected by the flooding last November.
Only one championship title remains up for grabs this weekend, with Diogo Moreira and Manu Gonzalez facing off for the Moto2 crown.
MotoGP-bound Moreira has a lead of 24 points over Gonzalez coming into the final round of 2025.
