Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez kicked off an important weekend on Friday at the Gran Premi de Catalunya, as they proudly sported the red of GASGAS on the brand’s home soils. In an extremely tight Friday, the premier class’ sole rookie Acosta claimed a brilliant third place as he qualified directly for Q2, and Fernandez finished in eighteenth despite being less than one second away from the new all-time lap record of the circuit set by Aleix Espargaro in 1’38.562.

Making (like every week when you are rookie) his debuts in MotoGP™ in Montmelo, there was Pedro Acosta who spent most of his day within the top 10, making it look easy to ride his GASGAS RC16. In a cloudy morning’s Free Practice 1, the young Shark’s late improvements with a 1’39.966 saw him take fourth of the opening session in the premier class, only 0.387 seconds off the leader, Jorge Martin. In another busy and tight afternoon’s Practice session, the rookie defended his ground pretty well on a layout that all riders know like their pocket. As he spent most of the one-hour session within the top 10, the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider gave a late push to reach a best in 1’38.665 that saw him claim third of the session, and earn his direct ticket for Q2.

Barcelona was one of his best races of 2023 during his MotoGP™ rookie year, and Augusto Fernandez was excited to be heading back home racing in front of Spanish fans this week. The weekend started pretty well for the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider, as we saw him make it to P8 on Free Practice 1 with a 1’40.303, a positive sign for Fernandez who has been struggling to get up to speed straight from the Fridays since the start of the season. In the afternoon’s Practice, he managed to improve to 1’39.542, but while he wanted for more in the final time attacks, Fernandez crashed in turn 4, meaning he had to settle with an eighteenth position in the standing. Augusto will have to go through an extremely difficult pre-qualifying stage alongside the Marquez brothers and Fabio Quartararo tomorrow morning. The track action will be back from 10:10 local time!