Marquez and Espargaro build their finale speed 04.11.2022: Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana MotoGP 2022 Round 20 Unharmed in two falls, Marc Marquez showed the outright pace to challenge consistently at the front while Pol Espargaro searched for the final tenths to make one lap improvements on

   
Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana
MotoGP 2022   Round 20




Unharmed in two falls, Marc Marquez showed the outright pace to challenge consistently at the front while Pol Espargaro searched for the final tenths to make one lap improvements on his final weekend as a Honda rider.




The final Friday of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship season came to a close in Valencia as the last Grand Prix of the year began. Light gusts of winds persisted throughout the day but conditions remained stable as riders and teams began to work for Sunday. As always, the times were incredibly tight as 21 riders were within 0.8s in Free Practice 1.


Speed was clearly there for Marc Marquez as he returned to home soil after the flyaways, but it did not prove to be a straightforward day. Marquez suffered a small fall at Turn 2 during the first session, his team repairing his bike to return him to track just a few minutes later.



In the afternoon he would have a second fall, this time at Turn 1. Unharmed in both incidents, the eight-time World Champion ended the day in fourth with a best lap of 1’30.390 in Free Practice 2. Battling a head cold, the eight-time World Champion is wokring to be fully prepared and fit to end the season in the best way possible come Sunday.



Pol Espargaro was one of the 21 riders within 0.8s in Free Practice 1 and then among the first to improve his time in FP2. Ultimately ending the day in 18th position, gaining just a few tenths would propel Espargaro up the timesheets given the nature of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.



The #44 remains upbeat as day turns to night on Friday, his work with the medium tyres producing a stronger race pace. Just putting together the final ‘perfect lap’ in Free Practice 3 remains to be done.


The action continues on Saturday morning at 09:55 Local Time when the field will once again head out on track.   
    


       
    
Marc Marquez  93
FOURTH  1'30.390


“The day was positive, and I really attacked today, it’s why I crashed twice. I pushed from the start because I want to have a good weekend at the last race of the year. Let’s see what happens because everyone is quite strong here, you saw in FP2 that many people were able to make a step.


Anyway, I’ll keep working and keep pushing. Maybe I crash again, but I am here to try to be as fast as I can be. Unfortunately, I am feeling quite sick this weekend with a cold and I’m taking a lot of vitamins and medicine to try and be as strong as possible on Sunday.”         

    


       
Pol Espargaro  44
18TH  1'31.249


“Our race pace today wasn’t too bad, we spent most of the day working with the medium tyre and before the time attacks started we were seventh. I feel quite good but today we didn’t really focus on the time attack, so we need to really go for in Free Practice 3.


It won’t be easy, it’s never easy in MotoGP, but the situation is not as dire as it seems from the results sheet. Tomorrow in the morning it should be a bit cooler which should make the medium front work a little bit better. We have to smash that lap to get into Q2, that’s the main goal for tomorrow.”         

    
       


    
Valencia Grand Prix Practice Results



1    MARINI Luca     10    ITA    Mooney VR46 Racing Team    Ducati    1'30.217
2    MARTIN Jorge     89    SPA    Pramac Racing    Ducati    0.105
3    MILLER Jack     43    AUS    Ducati Lenovo Team    Ducati    0.128
4    MARQUEZ Marc     93    SPA    Repsol Honda Team    Honda    0.173
5    BASTIANINI Enea     23    ITA    Team Gresini Racing MotoGP    Ducati    0.177
6    OLIVEIRA Miguel     88    POR    Red Bull KTM Factory Racing    KTM    0.205
7    ZARCO Johann     5    FRA    Pramac Racing    Ducati    0.207
8    QUARTARARO Fabio     20    FRA    Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP    Yamaha    0.225
9    BAGNAIA Francesco     62    ITA    Ducati Lenovo Team    Ducati    0.230
10    BINDER Brad     33    RSA    Red Bull KTM Factory Racing    KTM    0.302
11    RINS Alex     42    SPA    Team Suzuki Ecstar    Suzuki    0.490
12    VINALES Maverick     12    SPA    Aprilia Racing    Aprilia    0.597
13    ESPARGARO Aleix     41    SPA    Aprilia Racing    Aprilia    0.673
14    MIR Joan     36    SPA    Team Suzuki Ecstar    Suzuki    0.787
15    BEZZECCHI Marco     73    ITA    Mooney VR46 Racing Team    Ducati    0.797
16    MORBIDELLI Franco     21    ITA    Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP    Yamaha    0.799
17    MARQUEZ Alex     73    SPA    LCR Honda    Honda    0.931
18    ESPARGARO Pol     44    SPA    Repsol Honda Team    Honda    1.032
19    CRUTCHLOW Cal     35    GBR    WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team    Yamaha    1.128
20    FERNANDEZ Raul     25    SPA    Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing    KTM    1.381
21    GARDNER Remy     87    AUS    Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing    KTM    1.404
22    NAKAGAMI Takaaki     30    JPN    LCR Honda    Honda    1.455
23    DI GIANNANTONIO Fabio     49    ITA    Team Gresini Racing MotoGP    Ducati    1.545
24    BINDER Darryn     40    RSA    WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team    Yamaha    2.203
    
    

    - Repsol Honda also photos