Marquez and Bradl are immediately on the right track at the Teruel GP

The Repsol Honda Team had the strongest start to the year when action resumed in Aragon. Alex Marquez led FP1 and got a provisional Q2 time when Stefan Bradl attacked the top ten.

The biting cold conditions of last week were nowhere to be seen as the MotoGP championship returned to the MotorLand Aragon circuit for round 12 of the 2020 season. The times in the first RP were immediately faster than last Friday and would improve as the day progressed.

Alex Marquez kept getting stronger and won Free Practice 1 after spending the entire session in and among the top positions. The MotoGP rookie was one of only three riders to drop below the 1’49 mark in the first session and finished the fastest with a 1’48.184 despite a crash on his final lap. Alex’s pace continued in Free Practice 2, a series of steady laps approaching Sunday’s race. Alex is sixth overall, has a provisional spot in the second quarter and is already faster than his qualifying time from the second quarter of the previous week. It is planned to work again in Free Practice 3 to guarantee a Q2 place.

Stefan Bradl’s work with HRC continued to examine a number of options for the Honda RC213V. The program didn’t hold back the German when Bradl moved up to fourth place in RP1. Free Practice 2 brought another solid session to Bradl who spent a lot of time battling for the top 5. A 1’48.444 is already 0.7 seconds faster than his Q1 time from the previous week and Bradl was 11th in the overall standings, just 0.005 seconds away from a place in the combined top ten times.

Takaaki Nakagami at the LCR Honda was the fastest rider of the day, teammate Cal Crutchlow 0.154 seconds off third place overall when the Honda RC213V riders showed their speed again at Aragon.

The action will continue on Saturday, October 23rd at 10:55 am in Aragon with Free Training 3 – one last chance to decide who is in Q1 and Q2.