The first day of the Indian MotoGP Grand Prix has come to an end, with Luca Marini being the fastest. The Italian set the pace in this afternoon’s timed practice at the Buddh International Circuit. Miguel Oliveira finished in 17th.
After almost all riders had their first laps cancelled, Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) stayed at the top. The Italian was fast in this initial phase, but ended up losing the position to Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia). He was then overtaken by Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati), but quickly regained the lead.
With 45 minutes to go, another change of leader, with Bezzecchi returning to the top. In the first half of the session, the big surprise was Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini/Ducati) placing himself among the top five fastest. With 36 minutes remaining, Martín moved to the top of the timing charts… and shortly after set the best lap of the day up to that point.
Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) approached half an hour from the end, but then suffered a crash. The Italian was one of the four who had lapped in 1m45s, just like Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) did shortly after when he moved up to third. With 16 minutes to go, a new leader: Maverick Viñales (Aprilia). The Spaniard was later beaten by Bezzecchi.
Four minutes from the end, Martín crushed the competition with the first lap in 1m44s, shortly before Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) also surpassed Bezzecchi to move into second. The six-time champion was then overtaken by Espargaró.
Right at the end, Marini set the best time of all: 1m44.782s. With that, he was eight thousandths faster than Martín. Espargaró finished third, with Márquez in fourth and Bezzecchi in fifth. Viñales, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha), Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac/Ducati), and Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) also secured direct access to the second phase of qualifying.
Di Giannantonio, in 11th, missed that goal by 0.074s. Unable to keep up with the pace of the competition, Oliveira gradually dropped down after briefly being in third, finishing in 17th.
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