Record laps, lots of intensity and uncertainty right to the end. That was the end of practice at Losail for the opening round of the championship, with Álex Márquez coming out on top. Pedro Acosta made Q2 directly on his debut, as did Marc Márquez.
Everything was in place for another MotoGP session, with 27ºC and a dry track for the riders to show their best, the best time of the weekend so far.
Jorge Martín was one of the first to take the lead in the session with a lap of 1:53.535s, but he was soon beaten by Raúl Fernández, who shaved 0.253s off his compatriot’s time. Martín responded shortly afterwards, entering the second 52 with a time of 1:52.771s.
Fernández was back on top when the yellow flag was raised after Luca Marini crashed, not seriously. It wasn’t long before Martín was back on top, at a stage when Maverick Viñales was called away to the team garage after his RS-GP started smoking.
That's a lot of smoke from Maverick's Aprilia! 💨
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 9, 2024
He pulls off the track as soon as he sees the message from the team! 👍#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/k15Wd3rDT3
Then the majority of the riders returned for their team’s garage, to get back on track a couple of minutes later.
With 25 minutes to go in the session there was no leader, with Pedro Acosta rising to the top with a lap in 1:52.468s. A few seconds later Acosta found himself on the opposite side of the barricade… crashing. He lost control of his motorbike at turn 5, but didn’t suffer any damage.
After leading the session for five minutes, Acosta was beaten by a long way by Miguel Oliveira. The rider went from 16th to first, and was the first to enter the second 51, with a time of 1:51998s. Two minutes later R. Fernández improved substantially and moved up to second.
We've got a @TrackhouseMoto 1-2! 🇺🇸
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 9, 2024
The American team sits at the top! 🔥#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/S6FUb0Ro1x
The #25 didn’t get to “warm up” the place as Fabio Di Giannantonio beat him soon afterwards, taking 0.047s off his Trackhouse opponent’s best lap to move into second position.
With 13 minutes to go, Enea Bastianini, who had been one of the frontrunners throughout the session, moved into the lead of the session by taking 0.519s off Oliveira’s time.
The pace was picking up and in the space of a minute many riders attacked the top positions, with Martín leading with 1:51.262s – a new lap record at the circuit – Pecco Bagnaia coming in third, Brad Binder fourth and Marco Bezzecchi fifth… and the changes didn’t stop there, as Marc Márquez came in second with 1:51.469s.
With the final minutes approaching, it was all or nothing: Aleix Espargaró put in his best lap yet and moved into second position, Bagnaia briefly, literally, took the lead, as it would be won by Alex Márquez (1:51.108s) and there was still a minute and a half to go.
Jack Miller crashed in turn 1 and the yellow flag was raised, with many riders not having their final lap counted. The Trackhouse Racing duo, in the final seconds, dropped out of the places that gave direct access to Q2.
That was the end of the session: