The Ducati Lenovo Team makes its Goiânia debut with both riders in the top ten. Marc Márquez second, Francesco Bagnaia ninth

The Ducati Lenovo Team enjoyed a positive debut at the Autódromo Internacional de Goiânia – Ayrton Senna by securing a direct seed to Q2 with both riders. Marc Márquez finished Practice in second place, while Francesco Bagnaia was ninth at the flag.

Márquez and Bagnaia had to get to grips with the Brazilian circuit in constantly changing weather and tricky track conditions. Marc stayed at the top of the timesheets for most of the afternoon session to end up second, only 0.125s shy of today's fastest time. Pecco remained inside the top ten until the rain returned, crystallising the classification.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will resume proceedings tomorrow morning at 10:10 local time (GMT -3) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q2 at 11:15. The second Sprint of the season will be contested over 15 laps from 15:00.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“The track has some very nice long right-handers. It's a short track, especially compared to Sepang and Buriram, and I like it. The conditions weren't easy, but I think it'll be more of the same for the whole weekend. We already knew from previous days that the track wouldn't dry in a uniform way and that we would have to take some risks. Still, the feeling is good and I hope we can stay at this level. Obviously, the margin is still very big to understand the true pecking order in the field, but we're happy with how things have gone so far.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 9th
“The track is really nice: short, quick and very technical. It's very important to link the corners and carry a lot of speed into the turns. It's a shame that we only had a few laps in dry conditions, but I can say that that little sample was positive. I like the bike and it feels good. I was comfortable in the morning's mixed conditions as well as in Practice. We secured a direct seed to Q2 and this is the most important thing.”