There was no time for jetlag for the Moto3 riders at Motegi today as they opened the action at the Grand Prix of Japan with the first free practice this morning. Under bright blue skies and with perfect temperatures as high as 25ºC Jonas Folger set the pace in the opening session before his German compatriot Sandro Cortese took over the reigns in the afternoon, dominating a field that also includes local wildcards Watanabe and Kamei. The fastest lap of the day in Moto3 was a 1.59.448, almost two seconds off Mika Kallio's minor category lap record here (1.57.666).
It was a day of experimentation for the MAPFRE Aspar Team, with both Jonas Folger and Luca Amato testing a variety of new things over the course of the two sessions. Jonas made a strong start, dominating the timesheets in the opening practice this morning before trying a change to his gearbox setting in the afternoon that did not have the desired effect. Time spent in the garage reverting the bike back to its original setting saw the German drop to seventh place by the end of the day but he remains confident that the team have the solution that will see him fighting for top spot again tomorrow. For Amato today was a first opportunity to uncover the secrets of Motegi, the MAPFRE Aspar Team rookie lapping 30th fastest overall.
7th Jonas Folger 2.00.219 (27 laps):
“This morning's session was very positive but we made some changes for the afternoon that didn't work out as we'd hoped. We went the wrong way with the gearbox setting and that led to some other problems so we lost quite a lot of time. Even so we managed to try some chassis settings and rule out some things that don't work and now we have a clear idea of what we need to do tomorrow. Today was the day to try new things and I'm sure tomorrow we will find the feeling we are looking for.”
30th Luca Amato 2.02.403 (31 laps):
“It was another day of adaptation for me. It's a nice track but it's quite tricky and I had to find my reference points. We had a few problems with the bike and struggled for a chassis setting. I was struggling to hold my line in the corners but it's only the first day and we have tonight to work out where we can improve. Tomorrow we will keep racking up the laps to help me adapt and hopefully my feeling will improve little by little.”
Mapfre Aspar Moto3 Press Release
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