Marc Marquez leads Brno MotoGP FP1 despite a crash
Marc Marquez kicked off the Brno MotoGP weekend leading FP1
Ducati MotoGP rider Marc Marquez kicked off the 2026 Czech Grand Prix weekend at Brno fastest of all in FP1 despite a late crash.
The reigning world champion scored his first win of the 2026 season last time out in Hungary, sweeping to pole and victory in both races to reignite his title hopes.
Ahead of the Czech Grand Prix weekend, Marc Marquez urged caution about repeating this at Brno given the more physical layout for his recovering left shoulder.
But the factory Ducati rider ultimately kicked off the weekend leading the opening practice session, taking control early on and wouldn’t be topped come the chequered flag.
It wasn’t a perfect session for Marquez, however, as he crashed at Turn 7 inside the final two minutes.
However, he walked away unscathed.
Fresh rubber allowed Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo to leap up to second late on, while Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez completed the top three having stayed on used rubber.
The 45-minute FP1 began with a series of early crashes for KTM’s Pedro Acosta, Tech3 counterpart Maverick Vinales and LCR Honda’s Diogo Moreira.
Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer led the way after 10 minutes of running with a 1m54.231s on the 2025-spec Ducati that Marc Marquez won on at Brno last year.
Marquez went to the top of the order with just under 35 minutes to go with a 1m53.599s, which he improved to a 1m053.303s around 10 minutes later.
That would ultimately be the time that kept him top of the pile by 0.200s come the chequered flag despite his late tumble.
Honda’s Joan Mir was just outside of the top three in fourth, while Ai Ogura was fifth on the sister of the Trackhouse Aprilias.
Pecco Bagnaia, last year’s Brno polesitter, was sixth on the sister factory team Ducati, while Aldeguer ended up seventh.
VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had surgery on a finger injury prior to Brno, was eighth on the VR46 Ducati ahead of Acosta and Honda’s Luca Marini.
Vinales was 13th after his early fall, while championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was 16th on his factory Aprilia.
Team-mate Jorge Martin, who has a double long lap penalty after causing a collision at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix, was 14th.
Martin spent some of the session practising the long lap loop, but did suffer a technical issue during one such visit and was forced to park one of his bikes at the side of the track.
Alex Marquez was 18th and 1.2s off the pace as he returns to action for Gresini following his horror crash at Barcelona last month that left him with fractures to his neck.
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