Guevara leads Rodrigo in Valencia FP1

The RBA Racing Team got their Valencia Grand Prix weekend off to a perfect start as both of their riders headed the time sheets at the end of first free practice for the Moto3 class.

It was a typically cold November morning at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, and this caught out a number of riders. Vicente Perez, John McPhee’s replacement at the Saxoprint team, was the first to fall at Turn 10. CIP Mahindra replacement rider Enzo Boulom and Gresini’s Enea Bastianini also explored the Turn 10 gravel trap.

Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda’s Jorge Navarro would have been hoping for an incident-free weekend on home soils after a dreadful time in the flyaway races for the Spaniard. However, a heavy fall at Turn 1 20 minutes into the session saw him taken to the medical centre for checks. Andrea Migno was the last of the fallers, the Sky VR46 rider going down at Turn 4.

Twitter: Ouch! That’s really not the way you want to start your Friday.

@Jorge_Navarro9 up and walking #ValenciaGP https://t.co/kCZ41ZIlCx (@MotoGP)

As the track began to warm up and the riders’ confidence grew, we began seeing the best times tumble. Juanfran Guevara led the session early doors, and returned to the top of the pile in the closing stages with a 1m40.333s to go two tenths of a second clear of his teammate Gabriel Rodrigo. It’s the first time this season that Guevara has topped a session.

World Champion Brad Binder will be looking to end his title-winning and final year in the lightweight class with one last win. The South African kicked off his Valencia weekend third fastest ahead of the Leopard trio of Fabio Quartararo, Joan Mir and Andrea Locatelli.

Livio Loi took the chequered flag in seventh ahead of Aspar’s Pecco Bagnaia, who put in a late lap of 1m40.791s to go eighth fastest. Aron Canet and Niccolo Antonelli rounded out the top 10.

There was a notable performer just outside of the top 10. Raul Fernandez has been brought in this weekend to take the place of Maria Herrera at the MH6 squad whilst the Spaniard recovers from injury. Fernandez stayed in and around the top 10 for much of FP1, eventually ending up a respectable 12^th at the chequered flag. Jorge Martin, Philipp Oettl and Bastianini completed the top 15.