Oddly enough, it rained at the Lusail desert circuit, 30km north of Doha, in the middle of nowhere, and oddly enough, it was Marc Marquez who dominated in a strange wet session.
This is how the MotoGP World Championship begins in Qatar, with the multiple champion from Cervera willing to intimidate his rivals from the start to recover his feelings and return to being the competitive rider he was, after four years of disappointment. This Saturday the level of the Catalan will begin to be seen in the qualifying session (12:40 to 1:20 p.m.) and the first Sprint race (5:00 p.m.).
As a rain shower fell on the Lusail circuit and the track was wet, Race Direction ruled that the second practice session did not count towards computing the times and establishing those who went on to Classification. So Practice was free and didn't count. Although that did not prevent the drivers from exhibiting their potential and Marc Márquez took home the best time of the afternoon. Facing the gallery? A warning for rivals.
It was symptomatic that with the wet track, Márquez took first place with the best time, ahead of the four KMT-Gas Gas: the Spanish couple Augusto Fernández-Pedro Acosta (with the red Gas Gas motorcycle) were second and third , and the two official KTMs, Miller and Binder, fourth and fifth, respectively, 8 tenths away.
The classification showed the typical ups and downs of wet sessions. Pecco Bagnaia, the champion and big favorite, who had been 10th in the dry, could only be 12th, 1.9s behind Márquez. And the main opponent, Jorge Martín, the fastest at midday, was 18th at 2.9 seconds. Nothing significant.
The moment of truth will be this Saturday in the third training session, which will serve as a screening for Q1 and Q2. And in the afternoon (5:00 p.m., Spanish time), the first points at stake with the Sprint at 11 laps.
