Ducati’s new hiring Danilo Petrucci led the way on Day 1 of the Jerez MotoGP test from his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in a Ducati 1-2.
Petrucci set the fastest time of the day at 1m37.968s in the final hour of running at Jerez to displace Ducati teammate Dovizioso who clocked a 1m38.185s – with both completing 53 laps apiece. Dovizioso was one of the riders to crash in the day.
The Ducati riders ran both the GP18 and GP19 bikes to compare the two. LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, meanwhile, shone in third position with his best lap of 1m38.348s from Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales (1m38.376s).
Nakagami did 67 laps to Vinales’ 58. Honda’s Marc Marquez was fifth with his best of 1m38.517s with 50 laps while Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli (1m38.659s) was fifth with 70 laps to his name.
The Italian was sandwiched by the Hondas with Jorge Lorenzo (1m38.749s) slotting in seventh from Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jack Miller (1m38.816s). Lorenzo completed 56 laps while Miller did 72.
With Michele Pirro still recovering, Alvaro Bautista (1m38.830s) was called in to ride the GP19 as the Spaniard finished ninth as Suzuki’s Joan Mir (1m38.956s) rounded out the Top 10. While Bautista did 64 laps, Mir could only do 52 after a wild crash in Turn 7.
It caused a red flag period with Mir taken to the medical center for a precautionary check. Aprilia’s Andrea Iannone (1m39.008s) was 11th despite the crash with the Italian completing only 24 laps in the day.
Avintia Racing Ducati’s Tito Rabat (1m39.097s) did well in 12th with 53 laps as the Spaniard gets to full form following his leg injury. He led the other Suzuki of Alex Rins (1m39.150s) who did 87 laps – the day’s maximum by a good margin.
Francesco Bagnaia (1m39.157s) ended up as the leading rookie in 14th in the Pramac Ducati with the leading KTM of Pol Espargaro (1m39.241s) only 15th from another rookie Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo (1m39.414s).
A technical issue halted Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi’s run to be only 17th but the Italian still did 50 laps while Aprialia’s tester Bradley Smith was 18th from KTM’s Johann Zarco – the former did 69 laps while the latter did 56.
The Top 20 had Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham (1m40.438s) with KTM Tech 3’s Hafizh Syahrin (1m40.630s) in 21st following by Suzuki tester Sylvain Guintoli (1m40.743s), KTM Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira (1m41.699s) and Aprilia’s Matteo Baiocco (1m42.766s).
Baiocco ran after Aleix fell unwell to run on Wednesday. In the lap count, Abraham did 43 laps to Syahrin’s 51, Guintoli completing 48, Oliveira 61 and Baiocco 49 to end the first day of running under sunny conditions.