2024 Barcelona MotoGP: Nakagami leads FP1, Bagnaia suffers late crash
LCR rider begins his final MotoGP wꦑeekend f๊astest in cold FP1
LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakgamai topped FP1 at the 2024 MotoGP Solidarity Grand Prix while Franc♏esco Bagnaia crashed during the practice start session.
MotoGP’s second visit to Barcelona in 2024 comes in the wake of the devastating flooding in Valencia that led to 🐈the grand prix at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit to be cancelled.
The Solidarity GP is named as such to honour the people 🌠of Vale༒ncia.
The championship battle between Jorge Martin an🎐d Bagnaia comes down to the wire this weekend, with 👍the former leading the way by 24 points.
After the opening 45-minute practice, Martin held tܫhe advantage over his rival in fifth, while Bagnaia ♑was seventh.
Top honours went to Nak𓂃agami and Honda, with the Japane♚se rider set to retire from full-time racing at the end of this weekend to take up a new role as an HRC development rider.
Fitting a fresh medium rear tyre for his final run, Nakagami shot to the top of the order on his LCR-run RC213V with a 1m40.501s in the f🍸inal moments to lead the way by 0.411s.
He headed Tech3 GASGAS rookie Pedro Acosta, who was involved in a scary collision with team-mat🥃e Augusto Fernandez five minutes into the session.
The pair exited🅠 Turn 5 side-by-side and made contact on the exit, with both riders going down and the red ♛flag brought out to clear up the debris.
Both riders were unhurt in the coll👍ision and were able to get back on track for the restart🌱.
When action resumed, Martin set the early pace with a 1m41.820s, with🐈 Bagnaia edging ahead moments later with a 1m41.798s.
Top spot would change hands to Pramac’s Martin again, 𓄧with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Acosta taking turns leading the way.
Acosta t🌺ook over top spot with a 1m40.912s with just under half an hour remaining, and would stay at the head of the pack until Nakagami - who crashed at Turn 2 during the session - fired in a 1m40.501s with just over two minutes to go.
Alex Marquez completed the top three behind Nakagami and Acosta, while KTM’s Brad🎉 Binder was fourth and Martin was fifth.
He headed the factory team Ducati duo of Enea Bastianini and Bagnaia, who was involved in an ܫodd incident at the end of the se꧅ssion during the practice start phase.
On the approach to Turn 1, Aprilia’ꦇs Maverick Vinales swooped ahead of Bagnaia into the braking zone.
There 🌄was no contact, but Bagnaia crashed under braking and was livid with Vinales, who was eighth at the chequered flag.
KTM’s Jack Miller and Mar🐭c Marquez (Gresini) completed the top 10.
Fabio Quartar𝔉aro was the leading Yamahꦿa in 11th, while Augusto Fernandez was 18th after his early tangle with Acosta.
Michele Pirro was 20th as he stands in for Fabio Di Giannantonio 𓃲at VR46, while Miguel Oliveira headed Trackhouse team-mate Raul Fernandez in 21st on 🔜his return from injury.
