Qatar MotoGP, Lusail FP1: Jorge Martin upstages impressive Pedro Acosta as 2024 MotoGP kicks off

Image credit: BikeSport

🇶🇦 ⏱️ 2024 Qatar MotoGP, Lusail | Free Practice Results Friday | Conditions – Dry

Jorge Martin had the honor of opening the 2024 MotoGP World Championship season with the quickest time in Free Practice 1 for the Qatar MotoGP, though most eyes were on rookie Pedro Acosta in third, Ollie Bastow reports for BikeSport.

Runner-up in 2023, Martin begins the new season as one of the favorites for the title on the Prima Pramac Racing Ducati and certainly gave an excellent early account of himself by turning it on when it mattered in the final minutes to hit a 1m 52.624secs.

Though a second shy of the top lap set by Pecco Bagnaia during pre-season testing at the Lusail International Circuit last month, times are expected to come down significantly as the sun sets ahead of the all-important Q1/2 deciding Practice session later this evening.

While Martin was a familiar name at the top of the first timed session of the year, it looked as though there would be a brand new one at the head of the order when Acosta shot to the top of the timesheets late on.

Occurring during a flurry of late final laps, the reigning Moto2 World Champion made good on pre-season predictions that he could be a top contender out of the box as he confidently swaggered to a 1m 52.695secs effort.

Though he’d be usurped in the end by both Martin and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, the +0.071s margin to the top spoke volumes as the GasGas-branded KTM headed up the Austrian firm’s charge early on.

Acosta’s efforts overshadowed another headline performance by the rider. Many are comparing the young Spaniard to Marc Marquez. In his first official session as a Ducati rider, the Gresini Racing rider spent time at the head of the timesheets before being shuffled back, only to leap back to fourth in the last minutes.

Brad Binder, too, proved competitive on the best factory KTMs, as he and his team-mate Jack Miller, who was ninth, held down the top ten results after P1.

Johann Zarco, the Frenchman getting to grips with his RC213V in sixth, flew under the radar but wildly overshadowed his stablemates at Honda. He was well ahead of team-mates Joan Mir, Luca Marini, and Takaaki Nakagami in 16th, 17th, and 21st.

Of the title-winning Ducati Lenovo Team, Enea Bastianini contended for the fastest time for much of the session before slipping to seventh at the flag. At the same time, Pecco Bagnaia was rooted towards the bottom of the timesheets for long periods as he focused on set-up, the defending champion popping up to tenth late.

Between them was 2023 Qatar MotoGP winner Fabio di Giannantonio, who was the eighth quickest ahead of his debut as a Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing rider.

He fared markedly better than team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, whose issues gelling with the Ducati GP23 package appeared to continue down in 18th as by far the slowest of the Desmosedici octet.

Elsewhere, Trackhouse Racing’s MotoGP debut officially began with Miguel Oliveira delivering the 12th fastest time. At the same time, Yamaha will be alarmed to see Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo making up the numbers in 15th and 19th.

Meanwhile, in a tale of two sessions for the Pramac Ducati team, while Martin was quickest of all, his team-mate Franco Morbidelli – having been forced to miss the entirety of pre-season testing – was left in 22nd and last as he works to get up to speed following his injury.