With Maverick Viñales sidelined as he continues his recovery, Jonas Folger returned to MotoGP action with the French squad, marking a significant moment as he reunited with the team having made all 19 of his premier class starts with Tech3.

The opening Free Practice session allowed both riders to work methodically through their programmes as Round 5 of the 2026 MotoGP™ World Championship got underway at the Bugatti Circuit.

Building on a streak of strong results - most recently eighth place in Jerez - Enea Bastianini continued to show encouraging pace throughout his morning stint, gaining further confidence in front of the home crowd.

At the same time, Folger approached his first laps back in MotoGP with patience, focusing on understanding the KTM RC16 and rebuilding familiarity with the tyres and overall package after three years away from the premier class.

Bastianini initially placed sixth in the afternoon’s session before dropping out of the Top Ten, but he responded well to climb back into the provisional Q2 positions. Continuing to push, an impressive lap on his fourth run saw Bastianini surge as high as second with ten minutes remaining.

With just three tenths of a second separating first from tenth, a late shuffle in a tightly contested session meant Bastianini ultimately missed out on the all-important Top Ten. The Italian finished Practice in 11th place with a time of 1’30.274 - just 0.078s outside of promotion to Q2 – ending his run of direct Q2 entries which started in Austin. On the other side of the garage, Folger set a 1’32.450 as his best lap, putting the German in 22nd place.

Enea Bastianini said: “Honestly, the bike felt fast, but the main problem is direction changes. I don’t have enough grip on entry, especially on the left, and I lose time especially in Turns 3 and 4. We are competitive, but the level is very high. Here we see that if you lose 0.3 seconds, you are out, so you need to be perfect. I need to adapt my riding and be smoother - it’s a home GP for the team so I will push to get the best result!”

Jonas Folger said: “I was super excited going into first practice. Of course, I was a bit nervous because when you are away from MotoGP this long, the level keeps getting higher and tighter, but I'm just happy to close the day 2.5 seconds off the pace after such a long time away. I had no crashes, I understood the bike, and I worked through the process of adapting my riding style across the two sessions. It’s fascinating how much riding styles have evolved, with so much more corner speed now and everything looking smoother, yet it is even faster.”