The reigning world champion has won the Spanish GP for the past two years and comes into the 2024 edition off the back of two disappointing rounds in Portugal and America.

In a crash-strewn session, Bagnaia left it to the end of the hour to produce a 1m36.025s to lead the way by 0.100 seconds from Aprilia’s Vinales.

Marc Marquez looked on course to take top spot from Bagnaia at the end but came up just short with a 1m36.168s to move ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and championship leader Jorge Martin.

The Pramac rider set the early pace in the hour-long afternoon session at Jerez with a 1m37.811s, trading top spot with KTM’s Brad Binder before the South African edged clear with a 1m36.794s inside the first 10 minutes.

Then followed a period of several crashes in quick succession, with Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing) and Vinales (Aprilia) sliding off.

Just over halfway into the session, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo came off his bike at Turn 7, with Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), Dani Pedrosa (KTM) and Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse) also suffering falls.

With just over 20 minutes remaining, Vinales pushed for an early soft tyre run on his Aprilia and produced a 1m36.482s.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This was beaten by Martin with a 1m36.435s about eight minutes later, before Vinales returned his Aprilia to the top of the times with a 1m36.125s.

This lap put Vinales underneath the existing lap record, but it would be bested by 0.100s by Bagnaia on his final flying lap at the end of the session.

Gresini’s Marc Marquez completed the top three from Bezzecchi, Martin and Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta – who was the only KTM rider to make it into Q2 qualifying directly.

A costly crash for Binder in the closing stages left him at the fringes of the top 10 and eventually shuffled down to 11th when the field shook itself out.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh on the sister factory Aprilia, with Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez taking the final Q2 spots.

The rest of the KTM contingent in Pedrosa, Jack Miller – who crashed late on – and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) will join Binder in Q1 on Saturday morning, as will Pramac’s Jorge Martin, both Yamahas and all five Hondas.

The Japanese marque has been without a customer outfit since the end of the 2022 season, when the former RNF squad elected to sign a multi-year deal with Aprilia.

In recent years, the importance of strong satellite structures has become a key element for a manufacturer’s success in MotoGP – spearheaded chiefly by Ducati.

Currently, Ducati factory-backed Pramac leads the riders’ standings with Jorge Martin in 2024, while much of KTM’s success in the first three rounds has come courtesy of Tech3’s Pedro Acosta.

Securing a new satellite structure is now outgoing Yamaha team boss Lin Jarvis’ primary focus, having recently secured 2021 world champion Quartararo to a new contract.

Asked about this on Thursday ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Quartararo has stressed that any satellite Yamaha team must be fully supported by the factory and not simply be a paying customer.

«It’s really important,» he said.»We are – Yamaha and also myself – are working really hard to have a satellite team.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

«I think that it’s really important, especially if you check how many laps we can do in the pre-season.

«If you check the number of laps we did compared to Ducati, it’s completely different and you can test many things, but also have the comments of more riders.

«So, this is really important and I think to have… I wouldn’t even say a satellite team.

«For me, it must be an extension of the factory team. They must have factory bikes, factory support and I think it’s important for the riders.

«In the end, the rider you have close to you with the same bike is your first rival.

«But if you have three more, it gives you even more motivation and I think you can even learn more from the others.»

It is thought that Yamaha has been in talks with several teams about 2025, including VR46 and Pramac.

However, VR46 team director Uccio Salucci recently told Motorsport.com that it was likely to remain with Ducati.

The Iwata-based manufacturer has pulled out all stops to convince Quartararo that he won’t be better off at a rival outfit, having managed to renew its contract with the French rider in a move that caught half the paddock by surprise.

Although it is clear that a lucrative €12 million financial offer played a significant part in Quartararo’s decision to stay at Yamaha, the profound changes in the factory’s reaction times also pushed him to sign a contract that will continue till the end of the 2026 season.

To persuade Quartararo to continue his relationship with Yamaha, team boss Lin Jarvis offered the 25-year-old a completely new bike that he will be able to sample this Monday at Jerez, the first official in-season test of 2024.

«Yamaha will test a new engine, a new chassis, a new swingarm and some aerodynamics on Monday at the test, a new bike,» a team member close to the matter told Motorsport.com.

Some of these parts were already tested by the Japanese’s marque’s test and development rider Cal Crutchlow last week in a private test in Barcelona.

«It was a bad test,» said the same source «Again the bad weather [it rained several days] played a trick on us.»

After the Portuguese GP,  the marque’s race riders stayed on track for a private test day at Portimao, but bad weather, wind and dirt prevented Quartararo and Rins from completing more than six laps.

At that test, the French manufacturer had only one power unit at its disposal, but on Monday both Quartararo and Rins will have all the new equipment, including engine, chassis, swingarm and aero parts, showing that the Italy-based team has got its act together.

During Monday’s test, the engine will be tested with the current spec-A prototype to see if there is a clear improvement, before the rest of the updates are introduced slowly to compare and understand which ones bring benefits and which ones do not.

During the Barcelona test, the threat of rain forced Yamaha to test everything quickly in the initial laps before the track conditions became too poor for any meaningful running.