Rome, 5 September (LaPresse) – South African Brad Binder was the fastest in pre-qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix, the fifteenth round of the MotoGP World Championship. On the Montmelò circuit, the KTM rider finished ahead of his teammate, Spaniard Pedro Acosta. Alex Marquez's Ducati from the Gresini team was 139 thousandths of a second behind, ahead of his brother Marc, the overall leader with Ducati. Pecco Bagnaia sank with the other official red bike, finishing no higher than 21st tomorrow. For the world championship runner-up, it was the worst Friday of the season. Enea Bastianini, on the other KTM, crashed at turn 2 a few minutes before the end of pre-qualifying, with yellow flags and times cancelled for those attempting a final “time attack”. In addition to Bagnaia, Quartararo (11th), Di Giannantonio (17th) and Martin (18th) were also forced into Q1.