The 2024 MotoGP™ World Championship is well underway as Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez began their Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar campaign on Friday. The much-awaited debuts of rookie Acosta did not disappoint after MotoGP™’s new number 31 claimed P3 of both Free Practices, while Fernandez took advantage of the rare rain at Lusail to make his way to P2 in the evening’s Free Practice 2, which replaced the one-hour Practice, postponed for safety measures.
All eyes were on the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s garage on Friday, all watching for one of the most-awaited MotoGP™ rookies, Pedro Acosta. His pre-season work caught the attention of all, but Friday confirmed that the two time-World Champion of just nineteen years of age, is special. As he flew to the first practice session, the young Shark, sporting with humour the green sign ‘L’ on the back of his helmet (learner plate), did not seem like a learner at all after just a couple of minutes, especially when he managed to produce two incredible saves – Marquez style - that we will all have already seen either on TV or on social media by now. The best of his sixteen laps was a 1’52.695, meaning that he claimed P3 of Free Practice 1, 0.047 seconds behind 2023 runner-up Jorge Martin, and 0.024 seconds from the experienced Aleix Espargaro. We will note that he was fastest in sector 4. Impressive for a rookie. In the evening, a rare rain came around before the MotoGP™ one hour-Practice, decisive for the qualifying spots. However, due to bad track conditions, it was decided for the safety of the riders that the night session in the wet would become a forty-minute Free Practice 2. Nevertheless, that did not stop him from impressing us all again. A 2’06.938 in the wet placed him again third in the standings, just behind his teammate Fernandez. Too bad that tonight was just a free practice, but it was a very positive first day in the office for Pedro!
Coming from a difficult pre-season, Augusto Fernandez was eager to get back to a proper race weekend. The first session was not an easy one as he picked things where he left them a few days ago at the Qatar Test. His best lap was a 1’53.847 in FP1, still quite far from the top, but he started to progressively recover the feeling. The desert rain later in the night turned into a good opportunity for Augusto Fernandez to shine as he has often proven to be strong in tricky track conditions. A 2’06.834 meant he was second fastest of FP2, 0.290 seconds from Marc Marquez. Some positives that the number 37 will take into Saturday as a decisive Practice session of forty-five minutes now awaits the MotoGP™ class, before qualifying starts at 14:40 GMT+3. Then, the much-awaited Tissot Sprint will start at 19:00!
