Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team third in MotorLand Aragón Practice, just milliseconds from the top. Francesco Bagnaia thirteenth

• Four Ducatis in the top 5: Alex Márquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) is second, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Racing Team) fourth ahead of Fermín Aldeguer
  
  

The Ducati Lenovo Team competed in the opening day of action at MotorLand Aragón, host of the thirteenth Grand Prix of the season. Marc Márquez finished Practice in third position, while Francesco Bagnaia – thirteenth – will have to tackle Q1 tomorrow morning at the Spanish venue.

Márquez – the fastest rider in FP1 – took first position in the early stages of Practice and stayed in the lead for two-thirds of the session. Marc then bounced back to the top with nine minutes remaining to eventually finish third, only 0.038secs adrift of today's fastest lap-time. Bagnaia, twentieth in Free Practice 1, got closer to the top ten in the final minutes of Practice. During his last time attack, Pecco, who was projected to make it into the top ten, ran wide at the final corner.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will return to action at 10:10 local time (GMT +2) tomorrow for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q1 (10:50), Q2 (11:15) and by the thirteenth Sprint of the season, to be contested over 11 laps from 15:00.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 3rd
“This is a track I like, much more than others. Today I rode well and in a consistent way; it's true that Marco (Bezzecchi) and Alex (Márquez) were quicker than me in the time attack, but the important thing for us is to continue in this direction. We knew that the time set in the first quick lap attempt would have granted us a direct seed to Q2, so we chose not to take any risks and instead focused on the tyres. If we want to battle for the title, it's clear that on a favourable track the goal must be to score maximum points or go very close to it, while trying to better our main rivals.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 13th
“I was expecting a different type of feeling and performance here at Aragón. Since Silverstone, we're having a difficult time: it's true that even in the previous races I wasn't able to shine, but I had still managed to be in the top ten. We're trying to understand the reason behind the further loss of grip at the rear-end. Generally speaking, it was a challenging day as I took many risks and nearly crashed several times. In the last time attack, I tried to brake hard but had to run wide, losing the chance to be in the top ten, which would have been a great result given the situation.”