Jorge Martin, the runner-up of the 2023 MotoGP season, took the lead in the opening practice session of the 2024 championship in Qatar. However, it was rookie Pedro Acosta who stole the spotlight. The young Spaniard, who has already found success in Moto2 and Moto3, delivered a consistent performance throughout the session and briefly held the lead in the final minutes before dropping to third place. TV cameras captured Acosta’s impressive bike control as he skillfully avoided several potential accidents, including a particularly daring slide at Turn 1.
The track conditions for the first practice session were likely less dusty than usual due to MotoGP preseason testing and the opening of the Endurance World Championship that took place at the same venue in the weeks prior. Martin ended up leading the session with a lap time of 1m52.624s. Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was his closest competitor, trailing by just half a second and edging out Acosta by a quarter of a tenth.
In a notable change, Marc Marquez, no longer racing for Honda, piloted his Gresini team Ducati to a respectable fourth place. This resulted in a fully Spanish top four, with the riders separated by just 0.177s. KTM’s Brad Binder was right behind, while Johann Zarco, the new addition to LCR Honda, impressed with a late surge to secure sixth place, becoming the highest-ranked Honda RC213V rider.
Enea Bastianini, riding for Ducati, led a significant part of the session but ended up settling for seventh place. Fabio Di Giannantonio, who recently joined Ducati VR46, and Jack Miller, from KTM, completed the top ten. Reigning champion Pecco Bagnaia, also from Ducati, struggled for most of the session but managed to improve his position and finish in tenth place.
Trackhouse, the new team in MotoGP that replaced RNF as Aprilia’s satellite team, showed a solid performance, with Miguel Oliveira finishing in 12th place on the Aprilia RS-GP 2024 and Raul Fernandez securing 14th place on the RS-GP 2023. The only manufacturer not represented in the top ten was Yamaha, with Alex Rins as their leading rider in 15th place.
Franco Morbidelli from Pramac Ducati, who missed the entire pre-season, made his first appearance on a Ducati MotoGP bike since last year’s Valencia test. He finished in 22nd and last place, 2.1 seconds behind the leader.
