The sixth spherical of the 2024 marketing campaign started with the 2 riders vying for a manufacturing facility staff Ducati seat for 2025 setting the tempo throughout the primary 45-minute apply of the weekend.
Marquez set the early tempo on his Gresini Ducati and led for a lot of the session earlier than Martin – shod with recent comfortable rubber – took over within the closing phases with a 1m39.579s.
KTM’s Brad Binder accomplished the highest three from Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta, whereas final yr’s Catalan GP winner Aleix Espargaro – who introduced his retirement on Thursday – was fifth on the manufacturing facility Aprilia.
FP1 ran underneath gray skies however remained dry for its length, with Marquez setting out his stall early on his GP23 with a 1m41.226s within the opening moments of the session.
Espargaro briefly took over with a 1m40.504s, earlier than Marquez fired in a brace of session-best laps that culminated in a 1m39.871s with slightly below 10 minutes of the session gone.
That might stand because the benchmark for fairly some time as Marquez remained on the identical comfortable entrance/medium rear tyre mixture he started the session on.
Within the closing phases a lot of riders elected for recent rubber, with Martin the one one choosing a brand new comfortable rear tyre for a late time assault.
He produced a 1m39.579s with slightly below 5 minutes to go to maneuver to the highest of the standings and wouldn’t be bettered because the chequered flag got here out.
Marquez shadowed him by 0.292s, with Binder finishing the highest three with a 1m39.958s after a late run on a recent medium rear.
Acosta was simply 0.008s behind his manufacturing facility KTM counterpart, with Espargaro fifth from Gresini’s Alex Marquez – who additionally didn’t run recent tyres late within the session.
Francesco Bagnaia – one other to stay with the tyres he began the session on – was seventh on his manufacturing facility staff Ducati from Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez, whereas KTM’s Jack Miller and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez rounded out the highest 10.
LCR’s Johann Zarco was the main Honda in thirteenth as he tried a brand new exhaust and revised aerodynamics, whereas Fabio Quartararo led the Yamaha cost on the M1’s new aero package deal in fifteenth.
