MotoGP | Round 20 – Valencia GP 2023 | Friday 24 November 2023
Bastianini and Bagnaia set the eleventh and fifteenth fastest times respectively at the end of Friday’s free practice for the Valencia GP
Enea Bastiniani and Francesco Bagnaia will have to go through Q1 tomorrow as they missed the top ten at the end of the first day of free practice for the Valencia GP, the 2023 MotoGP season finale held this weekend at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Cheste.
Ninth this morning after FP1, held in perfect weather conditions, Bastianini missed out on Q2 and a top 10 position by just two-thousandths of a second as he ended the afternoon session in P11 with a fastest lap in 1:29.573.
Bagnaia, who concluded FP1 in thirteenth position, took over one second off his time in the afternoon session, but the time wasn’t enough to secure him a spot in Q2. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider ended the day in P15 (1:29.801) and he will join his teammate in Q1 tomorrow.
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 11th (1:29.573)
“I was very unfortunate today. It’s a shame because the road was never totally free, there was always something on the track, crashes, yellow flags, riders who were not thinking about making the time but who were just wandering around; so, two-thousandths of a second kept me out of Q2. It wasn’t a great day even though my pace is good; every time I entered, I improved and had good splits, so it’s a shame to be out of Q2. We have little grip, especially on the tyre edge and we are unable to have good acceleration; this is what we are missing but I think it will sort itself out as the laps go by and it will certainly be important to analyse today’s data.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 15th (1:29.801)
“Honestly, we needed more time to improve our situation, I was struggling a lot today; normally we finish the job on the final part of the session on Friday but today it was more difficult. For tomorrow we already have ideas of where to improve because after the session we checked the data and we are losing like five-tenths in three corners, which is a lot of time. But it’s better that it’s just in three corners because we know where to intervene. The feeling is not the best at the front, but I am convinced that we can solve it and get prepared for the Sprint race.”
The Ducati Lenovo Team will be out on track again at the Ricardo Tormo circuit on Saturday morning for the second free practice session at 10.10 CET, while Q1 and Q2 follow shortly after at 10.50. The 13-lap Sprint race is scheduled for a 15.00 CET start.
