Aprilia Racing begins the race weekend at Lusail International Circuit with Marco Bezzecchi closing out the practice session nineteenth ahead of Jorge Martín, tackling his first weekend on the track since the season start.
Marco Bezzecchi, who did a good ninth time in FP1, was unable to confirm the same performance in the practice session, finishing with the nineteenth time. The Italian rider will therefore have to go through Q1 in order to earn a spot in Q2.
Jorge Martín’s return to the track was eagerly awaited after almost five months of inactivity. Before the sessions, the Spanish rider was cleared to race, thereby kicking off his season with Aprilia Racing. For him, this will be a weekend of adapting to the RS-GP25 after missing the pre-season tests and the first three races, but it will also be a crucial test of his physical condition. Martín finished the practice session in twentieth place and will have to go through Q1.
Overall, the day was a bit difficult. I struggled because we have big problems with instability here, so I’m unable to brake hard. This is a problem that we’ve been having pretty much everywhere, but on this track we are feeling it even more. I need to try and be more fluid, but that’s a bit complicated at the moment. We’ll analyse all the data thoroughly now and try to see where we can improve. Jorge, for example, has been consistently rather strong in his time-attacks, so he’ll be able to give us an important hand.
The primary goal is to test my physical condition. I managed to ride in the afternoon and, most importantly, I noticed good physical improvement in the evening. I shaved off a few tenths on every run, although I am still lacking consistency riding a MotoGP bike. It was a bit like the first day of school for me. I was nervous, but that’s only normal – it means that I’m finally back on the track. Today was also useful to see what areas we need to work on with the RS-GP25. It will be a long road, but we’ll keep working with the same commitment.
It was a complicated Friday. Marco started the day off well, but unfortunately in the practice session he was unable to find the same feeling. We need to keep working on the time-attack to take a step forward already on Friday. It’s great to see Jorge back on the bike. Returning to the track after months of down time and doing it on a race weekend is anything but simple, especially when you consider that he is still not at 100% fitness, but Jorge is doing it with the right attitude and with great determination.
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