KTM Factory Racing
For 35 years MotoGP has been making the short trip north through the center of Barcelona to the circuit constructed in 1991 and the site of the Catalan Grand Prix since 1996. The greasy but abrasive asphalt is notorious for its lack of traction but the 4.6km layout provides a testing mix of 14 fast and open but also tight and demanding turns.
Friday went smoothly for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing as Acosta and Binder classified P1 and P3 in Practice for direct Q2 status on Saturday. Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Enea Bastianini was nudged to P11 in the last minute and entry to Q1 with Viñales less than one second from Pedro’s rapid lap. Acosta continued his pace through a sunny Saturday morning and eased to his second career Pole Position, the first for the Spaniard since 2024. Brad was just half a second behind his teammate for P8 and the third row of the grid. Enea took P15 and Maverick Viñales felt his way back to speed with P17.
Acosta soared into contention at the start of the Sprint and preserved his tire performance until the final two laps when he hounded the rear wheel of the leader. He searched for an overtaking opportunity into Turn 10 and then around the final two curves but just missed out in the drag to the flag. The Sprint classification for victory was the closest since the start of the Saturday concept in 2023. Bastianini also engaged in a dogfight in the lower half of the top ten. The Italian gained and lost track space and made sure of P10 by the finale. Binder’s race was over in the opening corner after contact with another rider put the South African in the gravel. Viñales had to retire with a minor technical issue after seven laps.
The 24-lap Grand Prix gets underway at 14.00 on Sunday.
Pedro Acosta, 1st in qualification, 2nd in the Sprint: “Just one more lap! Pace quite OK, start quite OK but we’re missing something in the beginning of the race before we can come back, so we need to find a bit more grip. But I’m happy with the rhythm and how we managed the rear tire to be fast at the end. A different tire tomorrow so it’s a question mark. Today we were fast, tomorrow we will see if we can have the same.”
Enea Bastianini, 14th in qualification, 10th in the Sprint: “I was competitive in qualifying but I was unlucky to find two consecutive yellow flags in Turn 5 and could not do any better than my first run. In any case my pace in the race was not too bad. I tried to recover positions lap-by-lap but towards the end I destroyed the tire and just had to manage. It should be easier tomorrow with more time and more laps to make a comeback.”
Brad Binder, 8th in qualification, DNF in the Sprint: “Well, a short race. I had a good start but as I went into Turn 1 I got tapped on the inside. A racing incident. Tomorrow I’ll try going in there a bit tighter! I would have liked a good result today but we’ll have another go tomorrow. Our bike was really working well and I feel we have a great package for this track. There is still time to turn this weekend around.”
Maverick Viñales, 17th in qualification, DNF in the Sprint: “I had a technical problem with the rear brake and it was impossible to keep my foot on the footrest. A shame because I wanted as many laps as possible. Physically I’m good. I just need to build-up now and I need to learn more about the bike. It feels good and it’s nice to have traction which is unusual here. I want to finish tomorrow and accumulate laps. I think I could have been in Q2 today if I had full strength…but we have some time.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “A very exciting race here today and we have to be very happy with our performance across the board here this weekend. From Friday we could see that the track and the current grip level suited us and even today with the track temperature being a lot higher we were very competitive. Pedro’s podium was great and we have to hope for more tomorrow. The other riders were strong as well: a good grid position for Brad and both Enea and Maverick had decent speed here.”
Ducati Lenovo
The Ducati Lenovo Team completed the second day of action for the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalunya. At Montmeló, Francesco Bagnaia secured a sixth-place finish in the 12-lap Sprint at the Catalan venue.
After missing out on Q2 by only 0.051s, Bagnaia got a good start from the fifth row and made his way up to ninth place by the beginning of lap two. Pecco then moved into sixth position with five laps remaining, while showing an encouraging and consistent pace aboard his Desmosedici GP machine.
The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action tomorrow morning at 9:40 local time (GMT +2) for the warm up, which will be followed by the sixth race of the season, contested over a 24-lap distance from 14:00.
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 6th
“We made another small step forward, which is important. It wasn’t easy because tyre wear is very significant at this track, but we managed to complete the Sprint with a good pace. We’re continuing to give it our all, knowing that our potential is higher than this. The constant this weekend is that I’m able to be quite fast with used tyres. The issue is in the early stages: I can’t be as competitive in the opening laps because I lack the initial drive traction-wise at the exit of three corners. We’re working on this area and already made some improvements, so we need to continue in this direction.”
Honda HRC Castrol
Hard work from Luca Marini’s side of the Honda HRC Castrol garage turned around a disappointing morning into a more positive Sprint race. Starting in 16th on the grid, Marini followed Mir to the left-hand side of the circuit to gain more positions through Turn 1. Avoiding the incident which would take down his teammate, Marini began to contest the points paying positions alongside the likes of Bagnaia and Bezzecchi. As his tyres dropped, Marini defended his position as best as possible and crossed the line in 11th – just a second shy of points.
Leading the first session of the day, all eyes were firmly on Joan Mir as he and the Honda RC213V set the pace on Saturday at the Catalan GP. Having already earned a Q2 spot, Mir was hopeful of continuing this early speed, but another nail-bitingly close session would see the #36 only earn tenth on the grid. With a point to prove, the 2020 MotoGP World Champion went for the outside line through Turn 1 as the Sprint began but lady lucky would forgo Mir as contact with another rider sent Brad Binder into the side of his Honda RC213V. Mir was unharmed in the crash.
The main event, the 24-lap Catalan Grand Prix is scheduled to begin at 14:00 Local Time with the weather only set to improve further.
Luca Marini 10
Honda HRC Castrol
“On one hand I am satisfied because we were able to make a huge step forward compared to yesterday and this morning. We were able to match the lap times of Zarco in the race thanks to some good changes on the bike. But it is true that this year it is harder for us here than last year, there is less grip from the circuit and we are quite limited. With a new tyre, I am able to stay with the likes of Pecco, Franco and Bezz but then our grip starts to fade. With an even better start we can maybe gain another spot, but the top ten remains the target.”
Joan Mir 36
Honda HRC Castrol
“A really unlucky day with what happened in the Sprint. Our problem started before in the second time attack. We did one time attack with one bike and the second with the other and my feeling wasn’t the same so I couldn’t take 100% from the new tyre and because of this we were in tenth instead of in the top five. If I was able to start inside the top five, we can avoid this kind of bad luck. A shame because I know the speed we can show here. Let’s try tomorrow.”
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
A sunny weather and warm temperatures welcomed MotoGP on Saturday’s Catalan GP, and the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team had a satisfying day with Fabio Di Giannantonio in the Sprint: after a come back from the second row, he was third and claimed his second Sprint podium of the season. Franco Morbidelli had a more complicated race; he started from the front and crossed the finish line in seventh place.
A difficult Qualifying didn’t stop Di Giannantonio’s ambitions: in the Sprint he had a solid start from the second row (1’38”477). From the sixth place on the grid, Fabio started to recover positions right away and he got into the podium fight from the early stages. The rider from Rome showed a good pace throughout the 12 laps, confirming he has a key role in Catalan Saturday too: Di Giannantonio crossed the line in third place, securing his second Sprint podium of the season (after Brazil). He now sits in fourth place in the World Standing with 91 points.
Brilliant Saturday morning for Morbidelli, who was back in front row after going through Q1: in the Sprint, Franco started from the second place of the grid (1’38”301), but a difficult start didn’t allow him to keep staying in the front group. The Italian Brazilian rider had a key role in the race, with intense battles during all the 12 laps, showing the steps forward. Morbidelli arrived at the chequered flag in seventh place and now he is thirteenth in the World Standing with 30 points.
The Catalan GP will conclude tomorrow with the main race, which will start at 14:00 (local time).
Fabio Di Giannantonio – 49
“Unfortunately, today we started from the second row because I made a mistake in Qualifying and the race start is always difficult, with many aggressive riders. This Sprint was so long for me, I’ve always been focused on trying to keep my positions, recovering and overtaking. I had a lot of fun! It’s a pity there were few laps to go, because I think I had something more than the two riders in front, but we did our maximum and I am happy. Moreover, we are working on the start, and we made a little step here. For tomorrow’s race, I don’t want to exclude the soft tyre, because today I didn’t feel a great consumption and I could keep pushing in the final stages too. Analysing and choosing well will be crucial. With used tyres, I think we have a good rhythm and feeling, we can have a very good race.”
Franco Morbidelli – 21
“Overall, it was a positive Saturday. We performed very well, we made some steps this morning, improving the feeling with the bike and having some good time attacks. In the Sprint, I was pushed off at the first corner and I could never recover. In Saturday’s race is always difficult to come back and I hadn’t an excellent potential. Anyway, I feel we’re working very well in these last races, we are very analytics and we communicate well with the engineers and all the team. This weekend, Valentino is in the garage and his spark always helps, we are proud of our performance. For tomorrow, it’s difficult to predict something because anything can happen at the first corner, as we saw today. Let’s see.”
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo struggled to find pace in the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalunya Sprint and wrapped it up in P13. Coming from P19 on the grid, Álex Rins was pushing for the entire 12 laps to secure P15 just before the finish line.
Quartararo launched from P7 and rode in eighth place before dropping down to P10 at the start of lap 2. Despite a rival crashing ahead of him, El Diablo gradually fell back to P13 on the final lap. He crossed the finish line with a 10.042s gap to first.
Rins commenced the Sprint from P19 and climbed up to P17 on the opening lap. The number 42 benefitted from a crash by Jorge Martin on lap 3 while the Yamaha rider was trying to close the gap to two riders ahead of him fighting for P14. He was all over the back of Jack Miller’s bike on the penultimate lap and found a way through on the last lap. He took the chequered flag in 15th place, 14.166s from the winner.
Today’s results see Quartararo in 16th place in the championship standings with 26 points. Rins is in 19th with 7 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP are in 10th position in the team classifications with 33 points, and Yamaha is fifth in the constructor rankings with 29 points.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team will be back in action on Sunday for Warm Up, held from 09:40-09:50 (GMT+2), and the 24-lap Race, which starts at 14:00.
Discussion about this post