The new MotoGP season is underway. The first free practice of the Qatar GP kicked off the championship, with Jorge Martín setting the pace at Losail. As it was still during daylight, the session was not representative of the nighttime conditions that will be encountered in qualifying, as well as in the races. Miguel Oliveira finished 12th.
In an initial phase, it was Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) leading, but as the second laps were launched, the table changed a lot. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM) was the man who followed in front. Then, it was Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) who passed to the top, with Enea Bastianini (Ducati) in second and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) in third. At that time, still in the first ten minutes, the top 13 fit in less than a second.
The times continued to evolve and Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) took the lead by dethroning Marc Márquez by 0.161s. The vice-champion was later surpassed by Bastianini, when he was 36 thousandths faster. Later, Miller placed himself in second 24 thousandths behind the leader.
Already in the second half of the 45-minute session, Martín returned to the top of the table, exchanging places with Bastianini. It was a situation that lasted a short time, before Marc Márquez took the lead… although Bastianini responded not much later to return to first.
With ten minutes remaining, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati) reached third, while Binder became the leader of the table. The South African would be surpassed by Acosta, who continued to surprise in his first free practice in MotoGP.
The best times came only in the last two minutes. Martín returned to the top of the table by being 0.071s faster than Acosta and, at the same time, Marc Márquez set a time that left him in third… before Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) arrived in second.
Until the end, nothing changed, with Martín leading the first practice of the year with a 0.047s advantage over Espargaró. Acosta surprised with the third fastest time, while Marc Márquez and Binder completed the top five. Two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) reached tenth place on his final lap, after a discreet participation. As for Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia), he was in the top ten at one point, but lost positions before recovering to 11th in the final minutes, dropping to 12th place afterwards.
