Quartararo leads opening day of Valencian GP action

Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli got the opening day of action at the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana off to a flying start for PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, with Quartararo topping combined times and team-mate Morbidelli not far behind him in fifth despite cool conditions making it a tricky day at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Quartararo was able to lead the way in this morning’s FP1, lapping the 4.0km circuit in 1min 31.455 secs to lead the way from his Independent Riders’ Championship rival Jack Miller. Doing the double in FP2 by setting a time of 1min 30.735secs to end up fastest again, Fabio leads the way into tomorrow’s second day of action by 0.148secs from fellow Yamaha rider Maverick Viñales.

Morbidelli wasn’t far behind Quartararo in either of the day’s outings, finishing both 45-minute sessions at the Spanish circuit in fifth place and less than half a second from his team-mate. His fastest lap of 1min 31.199secs in the final minutes of FP2 means he’s currently 0.464secs back, with both riders securing a provisional spot in Q2 should low track temperature or rain thwart a chance for improvement in tomorrow morning’s FP3.

Action at the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana continues tomorrow, with practice at 0955 local time (1655 Malaysian time) and qualifying at 1410 (2210 Malaysian time), before the 2019 MotoGP season concludes with race day on Sunday