For the first time since 1999 MotoGP is back in Argentina. The Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo was new and unknown to everybody. The goal for Ana Carrasco and Scott Deroue on the first day of the Argentinian GP was therefore to explore the track and found out what settings are needed to be quick.
Carrasco proved to be the most eager of the two RW Racing GP riders and quickly found her rhythm on the 4,8 kms long circuit. Carrasco was running around P15 to P18 until the final minute, in which she dropped back to P21.
In the second free practice the track was cleaner and lap times dropped. Positions changed quickly all the time. Carrasco improved her time as well, but not enough to hold her position. She finished FP2 in 27th with a best time of 1.53,460.
RW Racing GP team manager Jarno Janssen: “Unfortunately Ana couldn’t set a fast time in her last lap, but she is on the right track for sure. She feels comfortable and confident with the bike and the track and really likes the layout of the circuit. She can do well tomorrow.”
Scott Deroue botched it up a bit in the first session, cruising around insipidly in the early stages. In doing so he rode on his own for most of the time, which isn’t the best option to learn where the limits of the track are and to find out what you need in terms of settings. Deroue finished FP1 in 28th.
That was disappointing enough to serve as a wake-up call but in FP2 Deroue first needed to make up for the track time he wasted earlier. He improved his lap time and ended the session in 23rd with a lap time of 1.52,998.
Team manager Jarno Janssen wasn’t satisfied with Deroue’s first day. “Scott could have done much better. He wasted too much time in the first session and thus was running behind in the second one. Doing one fast lap in someone’s slipstream is not what it is about in free practices. You have to use the limited time you have to find the pace and the settings that allow you to go fast.”
RW Racing Press Release
