Alex Marquez goes alone on the opening day in Andalusia

Rookie Alex Marquez continues to progress on the famous Jerez circuit as he closes the distance up front.

For the first time in the history of the Grand Prix, two races were held in a row in the same season on the same track that started the Andalusian GP. Despite the different name, the Gran Premio Red Bull of Andalusia takes place at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, where the 2020 MotoGP season began just five days ago. Like last weekend, the conditions got hotter as the day wore on as the teams continued to work on perfecting their surroundings.

Moto2 world champion and MotoGP newcomer Alex Marquez was the only representative of the Repsol Honda team on Friday, but his approach stayed the same. He worked on his overall pace, improving the areas he missed on his racing debut and making further progress with the feel of his Honda RC213V. In warmer afternoon conditions, Alex ‘1’37.957 was his fastest time of the day – three tenths faster than at this point last weekend and just 0.8 seconds behind the fastest driver. In 15th place overall, Alex was less than a tenth behind race winner Fabio Quartararo, who won the Spanish GP last weekend.

Takaaki Nakagami ended the day as the fastest Honda driver, prevailing against Free Practice 2 with 1’37.715 and ending the day in eighth place.

Marc Marquez will be on his way to Free Practice 3 tomorrow, Saturday 25 July, with his teammate from the Repsol Honda Team to assess his fitness after breaking his right upper arm last Sunday and having an operation on Tuesday.