MADRID, 22 (EUROPA PRESS)
Spanish rider Pedro Acosta (KTM) dominated MotoGP practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday, the fourteenth round of the World Motorcycling Championship, beating leader Marc Márquez (Ducati) by just six thousandths of a second. Máximo Quiles (KTM) was fastest in Moto3 and Brazilian Diogo Moreira (Kalex) did the same in Moto2.
With a time of 1:37.061, the Murcia native climbed to the top of Friday's timesheets, all in a session in which he went off the rails after suffering a highside and ended up in the gravel in the final minutes. Still, no one could beat his time, with the championship leader coming closest, just six thousandths of a second behind.
The other Márquez brother, Alex (Ducati), completed the top three on Friday, while third in the championship, Francesco 'Pecco' Bagnaia (Ducati) was fourteenth, outside the top ten places that give direct access to Q2, and will have to go through Q1 for the third time this season.
The eldest of the Cervera riders, who was the only rider able to break the 1:38 mark on the Balaton Park circuit in the morning, started the afternoon session in the lead, with all the riders testing the medium tire on a circuit that is making its debut in the World Championship. Fermín Aldeguer (Ducati), the only rider able to challenge Márquez for victory last week at the Red Bull Ring, overtook his benchmark time to take the lead before the first quarter of an hour.
The eight-time world champion didn't take a minute to respond, and the Murcian, after the first half hour, responded by going under 1:38 before the Catalan returned to the lead, with a scare included, when he lost and regained control of his bike in one of the chicanes on the Hungarian circuit.
With fresh tires, another Murcian, Pedro Acosta (KTM), managed to overtake both of them, cutting almost half a second off the leader's time. On his next flying lap, he improved it by two-tenths of a second (1:37.061). He suffered a spectacular crash, flying into the air, at Turn 2 with two minutes remaining, but retained his pole position.
After the Márquez brothers, Aldeguer finished the session in fourth, while Joan Mir (Honda) and Pol Espargaró (KTM)—replacing the injured Maverick Viñales—finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Reigning champion Jorge Martín (Aprilia) was just one thousandth of a second off the top 10; Raúl Fernández (Aprilia) finished nineteenth, and Alex Rins (Yamaha) finished twenty-first.
In Moto2, Brazilian Diogo Moreira (Kalex), winner in Austria, continued his strong performance and dominated practice (1:41.213) ahead of Czech Filip Salac (Boscoscuro), with Spaniard Manu González (Kalex), who leads the intermediate class standings, completing Friday's podium less than two tenths behind the South American. The runner-up in the Riders' World Championship, Arón Canet (Kalex), will be forced into Q1 after finishing the day in twenty-first place.
Meanwhile, Adrián Huertas (Kalex) and Alonso López (Boscoscuro) completed the Top 5, with Iván Ortolá (Boscoscuro) in eighth place; Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) in ninth place; Dani Holgado (Kalex) in eleventh place; Marcos Ramírez (Kalex) in thirteenth place; and Alex Escrig (Forward) in fourteenth place, securing their direct passage to Q2.
In addition to Canet, other competitors in Q1 will be Albert Arenas (Kalex), fifteenth; Dani Muñoz (Kalex), sixteenth; Jorge Navarro (Forward), nineteenth; Sergio García Dols (Kalex), twenty-fifth; and Unai Orradre (Boscoscuro), twenty-sixth.
Finally, Spaniard Máximo Quiles (KTM), with a best time of 1:46.448, was the fastest of the day in Moto3 ahead of two other rookies, Argentine Valentín Perrone (KTM) and Italian Guido Pini (KTM), while category leader José Antonio Rueda (KTM) was fifth just behind his main rival for the championship, Ángel Piqueras (KTM).
Also avoiding Q1 are Adrián Fernández (Honda) and David Muñoz (KTM), sixth and seventh respectively, as well as David Almansa (Honda) and Álvaro Carpe (KTM), who finished eleventh and thirteenth, respectively, on Friday. Among the Spaniards, only Marcos Uriarte (KTM) finished outside the Top 14, sixteenth.
