MotoGP Qatar: Binder opens the action in FP1

A late storm from Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder claimed the opening honours of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend sitting fastest in Friday’s FP1.

The South African’s penultimate lap set the pace with a 1’54.851, just half a tenth ahead of LCR Idemitsu’s Takaaki Nakagami with Suzuki’s Alex Rins seemingly confident with preseason work, in third.

2022 free practice action kicked off at Qatar with controversy over Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati engine allocation. Last season’s runner up, and favourite to challenge this time around is rumoured to have struggled with the 2022’s spec upgrades, prompting the Bologna factory to run three versions across its eight riders. Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini headed out on track on 2021’s front runner with two different 2022 specifications split between Johann Zarco, Jorge Martin and Luca Marini and the factory Lenovo riders of Jack Miller and Bagnaia.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro maintained his preseason performance as FP1 roared to life, the Spaniard leading the standings with a 1’55.378 on his fifth lap of the new year with Marc Marquez up to speed and on his tail in the opening action. A seemingly fully fit Franky Morbidelli looked to challenge after the initial ten minutes, briefly sitting second before Marquez and Repsol Honda teammate Pol Espargaro dropped the Monster Yamaha rider to fifth, Rins sliding into fourth before Pol’s effort was deleted and Morbidelli improved again.

Zarco sat fifth after the initial third was dispatched, Bastianini impressing from the outset ahead of reigning champion Fabio Quartararo, Miller, Espargaro and Bagnaia. Martin held off last year’s victor Viñales in the top-12 at the Spaniard’s Aprilia education continued with the LCR pairing of