MotoGP: Viñales Tops the Timesheets on Friday
By Admin
Yamaha’s sole Factory rider took P1 in both sessions today, ahead of the Petronas SRT duo Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli.
Maverick Viñales improved on his morning time by 2.1 seconds come the afternoon, while the Petronas pair switched places; with Morbidelli taking P2 in FP1, and Quartararo taking the spot in FP2. Viñales stands alone in the Monster Energy Yamaha garage this weekend, due to The Doctor’s positive Covid result. Can the No. 12 continue this pace for Sunday?
Joan Mir continues to portray his tremendous performance across the season, as the Suzuki man takes fourth in the combined times, climbing from 6th in the morning session. The Spaniard sits 0.097 seconds above LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, the Brit showing continuous improvement since his injury.
The Espargaro brothers take P6 and P7 respectively, with Aleix leading on the Aprilia, and Pol being just 0.076s behind on the KTM. The pair end today only 0.9 seconds from the lead.
Le Man’s podium-placer Alex Marquez has a gap of just over a second to Viñales in P8; with a fourth in FP1, the Repsol Honda rookie is showing his continued progression up the board this season. Takaaki Nakagami is showing similar form to Marquez so far this weekend, taking P5 in the first Free Practice and following it with a P9 in the afternoon – just one place down from the 24-year-old, and only 0.001 second behind in FP2. We’re still waiting to see Nakagami on the podium in the premier class, can he do it this time around?
Alex Rins completes the top 10 for today, improving on his FP1 time by 1.882 seconds. Despite being 10th in the combined results, Rins remains just 1.068 seconds behind Viñales at the front. With the top 10 remaining within a second of each other, it’s still all to play for at Aragon.
FP3 will start at 10:55 Local Time, with Qualifying at 14:50 (GMT +2).
Feature Image: Yamaha Racing