Spanish MotoGP: Marquez holds off Yamahas in warm-up, Crutchlow falls
Honda's reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez narrowly edged out the Yamahas of Franco Morbidelli and Maverick Vinales during morning warm-up for the♌ Jerez season-ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚopener.
The session 🅘also ended with a big accident for Cal Crutchlow, who barrel-rolled at high speed through the gravel at Turn 8.
The LCR Honda rider - who only comple༒ted 7 l▨aps this morning, hinting at possible technical issues prior to his tumble - eventually walked slowly away with the assistance of marshals, then went straight for checks at the Medical Centre.
Honda's reigning MotoGP ꦯchampion Marc Marquez narrowly edged out the Yamahas of Franco Morbidelli and Maverick Vinales duringౠ morning warm-up for the Jerez season-opener.
The session also ended with a big accident for Cal C🔯rutchlow, who barrel-rolled at high speed through the gravel at Turn 8.
The LCR Honda rider - who only completed 7 laps this morning, hinting at possible technical issues prior to his tumble - eventually walked slowly away with the assistance of marshals, then went✅ straight for checks at the Medical Centre.
Heavy crash for at Turn 8!
— MotoGP (@MotoGP)
Thankfully, the Briton is back up on his feet!
After turns at the top for Morbidelli, Vinales and the KTM of Pol Espargaro, Marquez put together a trio of ever-faste𒉰r laps in the closing stages to lead the timesheets ahead of his latest title defence.
But Marquez was only 0.051s clear of Morbidelli and 0.076s ahead of Vinal🐎es.
While Marquez will start on the outside of the front ro𒈔w, behind the M1s of Fabio Quartararo and Vinales, Morbidelli was just tenth in qualifying on his A-spec machine.
The Petronas rider will hope his morning performance was a sign of things to come in the race, but with temperatures set to rise significantly by this afternoon, it remains to be seen if the Italian's impressꦡive speed will continue.
Another rider making a jump from qualifying this morning was Crutchlow's team-mat🎃e Takꩲaaki Nakagami and Ducati's Danilo Petrucci, who lodged a late fourth and fifth respectively.
Pol Espargaro, by contrast, was near the sharp-end through the 20-minutes, eventually settling for sixth (𒁃+0.351s). The KTM rider qualified seventh on Saturday despite having to use a medium rather than soft rear tyre.
Pole starter Quartararo was sandwiched between the RC16s of Espargaro and impressive rookie Brad Binder in seventh after a quiet session, with Andrea Dovi🐼zioso (Ducati) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) comp🦂leting the top ten.
Joan Mir was the lone Suzuki rider on track, in eleventh🅠, after team-mate Alex Ri🐼ns was officially declared unfit to take part following yesterday's shoulder injury.
Peter has been in the paddock for 🎐20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
