MotoGP FP1 Misano 2026: Marquez faster than Bezzecchi at the last moment

– At the last moment, Marc Marquez (Ducati) set the fastest time in the first practice for the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano. The defending champion beat the lap of Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) by six hundredths of a second.

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Just in time for the start of the practice sessions, the weather on the Adriatic coast had significantly improved. After heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday, the sun was shining on Friday morning.

After rain during the night, the track was still wet in the morning, but by the first MotoGP practice the asphalt had dried, allowing slick tires to be used from the start.

As the practice began, Jack Miller crashed in turn 4 on his Pramac Yamaha. Suddenly, the front wheel folded under braking. At that time, Franco Morbidelli had just appeared in the VR46 garage.

The Italian, who will move to the Superbike World Championship next year, was delayed and only left the pit lane after a few minutes. Everyone started the practice with soft front and medium rear tires.

After ten minutes, yellow flags were waved again, this time in the first sector. Pedro Acosta had crashed on a KTM while turning into turn 1. He also suddenly lost control of the front wheel.

After the first run, Bezzecchi led the timing with 1:32.025 minutes, 0.041 seconds ahead of Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati). Marc Marquez was fourth at that time, 0.369 seconds behind.

For the second run, only the two Aprilia riders Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) switched to medium front tires. Bezzecchi improved his best time to 1:31.872 minutes.

Marc Marquez also improved in his second run to third place behind his brother. His gap to Bezzecchi initially remained at 0.290 seconds. Both switched to a new soft front tire for the second run.

But then Marc Marquez set a new best time of 1:31.680 minutes and was 0.192 seconds ahead of Bezzecchi. At the same time, Jorge Martin improved to third place with the second factory Aprilia, putting the top 3 in the championship at the front.

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Local favorite Luca Marini also had a good start to the race weekend. In the third run, the Honda rider improved to third place and confirmed this time in his following lap.

Four minutes before the end of the session, Bezzecchi beat Marc Marquez’s time by 0.033 seconds and took the lead again with 1:31.647 minutes. Marini also improved. He remained third, but only 0.075 seconds behind Bezzecchi’s time.

But that was not the final practice result, as several riders improved in the final minutes. Bezzecchi improved the best time to 1:31.528 minutes on used tires.

But at the end of the practice, Marc Marquez crossed the finish line as one of the last riders and the stopwatch stopped at 1:31.468 minutes for him. This beat Bezzecchi’s time by 0.060 seconds, making him the fastest in practice.

Finally, Raul Fernandez also improved to third place. Alex Marquez finished the practice in fourth, followed by the best Honda. However, this was not Marini, but LCR rider Johann Zarco in fifth place.

Acosta set the sixth fastest time at the end. Marini was seventh. The top 10 were completed by Martin, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati).

Only 21 riders started in Misano, as Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) could not return after his thumb operation. Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori was in Barcelona to test the new 850.

The afternoon practice starts at 3:00 PM. Then it will be decided which ten riders qualify directly for Q2.

Read more Bezzecchi in the interview: «Two Aprilias against Marc? It’s everyone against everyone»

This report is continuously updated