After a busy morning on a dirty track, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa have made significant progress in this afternoon’s FP2 session, finishing first and second.
During this morning’s FP1 they chose to remain on the same soft rear tyre for the entire session whilst they adapted to the new track, whereas every other MotoGP rider put a fresh tyre on at the end of the session, thus demoting Marc and Dani to 14th and 16th respectively.
However, this afternoon on a cleaner track, both riders made substantial gains with Marc, who was over a second faster than anyone else, improving his time by 5.790s (FP1: 1’45.103) to 1’39.313 on lap 16 of 18, and Dani shaving 5.328s off his time with 1’40.396 on lap 18 of 18 (FP1: 1’45.724). What made this even more notable was the fact they recorded these impressive times on the hard rear Bridgestone tyre (and medium front).
Marc Marquez - 1st (1'39.313)
“It was a fun day, it is always interesting to learn all the different corners and their secrets at a new track and the practice sessions go by more quickly. Maybe the day was affected by the first session, in which we sacrificed putting in a fast lap in order to keep the same tyre on during the entire session. That was to enable us to keep more tyres for the remainder of the weekend. This afternoon we were able to have a more normal practice session and the track had improved a lot. The tyre durability also seemed much greater than before, and I think that it will continue improving as the weekend goes on. I am happy with how this first day went and with the base that we have. We shall continue working in the same way, as we are aware that tomorrow's times will be much closer”
Dani Pedrosa - 2nd (1'40.396)
"Overall this was a good first day, because we were able to try out the track in dry conditions. The asphalt was very dirty this morning and the tyres were getting destroyed immediately so we weren't able to make much progress. In the afternoon the asphalt was better and we had an opportunity to put in some laps, testing things out with the bike and with the track. We were able to ride more consistently and gather data that will allow us to improve again tomorrow”
Repsol Honda Press Release
