Fabio Di Giannantonio set the fastest time in Friday morning practice at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading a VR46 one-two on the opening day at Jerez and rolling the early-season momentum of the Italian rider into the European leg of the 2026 MotoGP championship.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 man lapped the 4.4-kilometre layout in 1m36.954s to finish as the only rider in the 1'36s bracket, with teammate Franco Morbidelli around three-tenths adrift in second. Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati was third, ahead of championship leader Marco Bezzecchi on the factory Aprilia and Marc Marquez on the factory Ducati in fifth.
It was a turbulent session for reigning champion Jorge Martin. The Spaniard ended FP1 tenth on the combined times but then triggered alarm on the out-lap of the practice start session with a bizarre crash at Turn 3. He walked away unhurt, but the timing — one morning into the first weekend of the European season — was described inside the Aprilia garage as far from ideal.
For Marc Marquez, FP1 offered a solid start to his home round. The Ducati Lenovo rider has spent the build-up insisting Jerez was a circuit that could expose the factory bike's early-season weaknesses, and despite finishing fifth he was inside the top group on both tyre runs.
Factory Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia ended the session 11th, the Italian continuing to search for the feeling that has eluded him for large parts of 2026. Ducati team staff told reporters they had "found something" between Austin and Jerez, and pinpointed Aprilia's advantage in mid-corner grip as the area they were trying to claw back. The Friday timesheets suggested the gap is not yet closed.
Aprilia's workload extended beyond Bezzecchi and Martin. Raul Fernandez on the Trackhouse bike placed sixth to underline the breadth of the RS-GP's pace at a track many had predicted would hand Ducati a reset. Pedro Acosta was eighth on the KTM — a respectable showing on a layout where the Austrian brand has historically struggled — and Jack Miller slotted seventh on the Pramac Yamaha, leaving his teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu just outside the top ten as the WorldSBK champion prepared for his first MotoGP race at a circuit he already knows.
The session also served as the first public look at the aggressive 2026-spec Ducati aero package that Marc Marquez admitted had taken him aback when he first saw it bolted to the Desmosedici earlier this week.
Friday's opening practice in the 2026 MotoGP weekend format does not count towards Q2 qualifying, so the real pressure arrives in the afternoon when the Practice session decides who skips Saturday's Q1. But the morning pace-setters tend to set the narrative, and Friday morning belongs to Di Giannantonio. The man who swept both COTA poles three weeks ago appears to have carried his Saturday magic into a genuinely competitive Friday.
For the VR46 team, the result is a reminder of how quickly Valentino Rossi's satellite squad has grown into a genuine factory-level operation. For Martin, the afternoon will be about restoring momentum. Everyone else's will be about matching Di Giannantonio.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/di-giannantonio-jerez-fp1-vr46-1-2-martin-crashes-2026). Visit for full coverage.*