Qualifying

The action resumed this morning with Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini both hitting the track with Free Practice 2 at 10:10 local time in Termas. After a tricky Friday, both were eager to take advantage of this final free session to make some improvements on their packages ahead of qualifying. Track conditions remained pretty much the same as day one, with clouds covering the Argentinian layout, but no sign of rain in the morning. After 13 laps in FP2 with a best in 1’38.785, it was time for Top Gun to attack in Q1. In his first run, the Spaniard could make a small improvement from his Practice time with a 1'38.246, but he was still a bit far from the Q2 spots, with his opponents having quickly gone below the 1’38 benchmark. Maverick could not find the right feeling to improve his second run, so his 1’38.246 remained his best, placing him in P20 on the grid. Bastianini’s morning was a similar scenario to his teammate’s. After 13 laps in FP2 with a best in 1’39.268, Bestia headed to Q1, and he immediately improved from his fastest lap of Friday. The lap times continued to go down for the 23, until he reached his best in 1’38.328, which placed him in P21 on the grid, just behind his teammate Viñales.

Tissot Sprint

Enea Bastianini was set to start from the last row then, from P21, for his first sprint in Argentina, since the Italian missed the first Sprint in Termas when it was introduced in 2023. Lights out at 15:00 LT for 12 laps. From the right side, Enea moved to the left to enter the first turn on the outside to place himself in the best way possible for the straight exciting T1. Busy traffic jam as always, but Bestia was in 18th after the first sector, and Brad Binder’s early crash saw him in P17 after the first lap, behind rookie Firmin Aldeguer. Aldeguer moved up, and after two laps, Bastianini had Raul Fernandez in his sight, just 0.2 seconds ahead. While trying to settle into his race pace, the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider tried to hold on to the Trackhouse rider, who tried to maintain the distance. A two rider-crash ahead then had Bestia move up to 15th on lap 5. Positions remained the same for a few laps, while Marquez brothers were stealing the show at the front. Halfway through the sprint, Bastianini had settled into a more comfortable pace, with similar, or sometimes faster, lap times than Pedro Acosta at the front. Eventually, he closed the gap on Fernandez to progress to P14 on lap 9, a position he kept until the finish line. An encouraging sprint for the #23, who finished just 7.2 seconds off the KTM of Acosta, initially 5th on the grid. In a similar way to Buriram’s sprint, Maverick Viñales found himself stuck in the middle of all riders when entering the first corner at the sprint start, and we saw him drop at the very end of the group after one lap. He refocused quickly, and overtook Lorenzo Salvadori in sector 2 of lap 2 to move up to 20th, with now rookie Ai Ogura 1.2 seconds at the front. The Japanese rookie moved ahead, leaving Somkiat Chantra ahead of Viñales. The #12 progressively settled into a better race pace once he had figured out his new bike setting, but somehow he could not close the gap on the Thai rookie, as still one second separated them. Maverick’s late pace was faster than the LCR rider, but not enough laps remained to have a chance to make a move. Top Gun finished in 18th, and he will look forward to the long distance on Sunday to try improving from today.

Just one day left in Termas for MotoGP™, but what a day awaits us! After a quick 10 minute-warm up in the morning, don’t miss the main event of the Gran Premio YPF Energìa de Argentina, at 15:00 local time (UTC-3), for another 25 laps of craziness!