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Ducati Quite Fast at Aragon, Barbera's Bike On Fire, One Lap with Rossi

The 800th Grand Prix race is drawing near at Aragon as the first three Free Practice sessions have ended this morning. With the first three FPs counting towards the Qailyfying rounds, we’re thrilled to see Ducati machinery showing real improvements over the rather poor results they had gotten us used to.
Barbera's Ducati in flames 15 photos
Photo: motogp.com
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Iannone and Dovizioso have led the first two sessions yesterday, but this morning’s outing saw Marc Marquez upping the pace and squeezing into the leading position in the combined time sheets. Dovizioso is only 0.162 seconds adrift from Marquez, while Pramac’s Iannone is 0.243 behind the championship leader. Pedrosa was in top three in FP2 only, while Yamaha’s Lorenzo and Rossi have also posted modest laps in the timed sessions, sometimes leaving generous room for Open-class bikes ahead.

Currently, Pedrosa is 6th, followed by Lorenzo, with Crutchlow and Aleix Espargaro separating them from Rossi. Qualifying 1 stars in a couple of hours and it will be interesting to see how the top factory riders will perform.

A dramatic incident took pale yesterday in FP1 as Hector Barbera’s all-new Ducati bike Avintia recently got burst into flames ten minutes ahead of the end of the session. Barbera was half-engulfed by flames, but bravely kept calm and managed to slow down and steer the bike off the track prior to jumping off it, rolling on the ground and fleeing from the spot lest the fire grow bigger. Marshals were quick to put out the fire, and it looks like Barbera is thankfully uninjured. Register (free) with motogp.com to watch the video of Barbera’s bike catching on fire.

And to get a better picture of what lapping around the Aragon circuit, make sure you watch the recording from Valentino Rossi’s gyroscopic camera.

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