After watching his compatriot Dani Pedrosa establish his victory credentials from first practice in Germany a week ago, today Jorge Lorenzo fired the first shot at Mugello, setting the pace in both of the opening two free practice sessions. A crash strewn day that saw Lorenzo hit the deck along with the likes of Bautista and Barberá highlighted the technical difficulties of riding at Mugello although lap times are already on par with the best from last year – the new 1000cc engines making hay down the longest straight in the championship.
The Power Electronics Aspar riders encountered their own difficulties with the track, Aleix Espargaró running into the gravel this morning and Randy De Puniet doing the same this afternoon. However, the Spaniard and the Frenchman continued to set the pace amongst the CRT machines with a second advantage over their rivals. Aleix struck first in the private battle with his team-mate, clocking a 1'50.015 on his fourteenth lap at the end of a long, hot day. De Puniet finished just two tenths behind his team-mate after suffering a gearbox problem that forced him to run off track twice, fortunately without consequences.
12th Aleix Espargaró 1.50.015 (33 laps): “I am really happy with the work we have done today and surprised by our pace this afternoon. We didn't expect to set these lap times already on day one and thought we would be losing out a lot more to the factory bikes down the straights. The bike is working well and we have to keep going like this. I am looking forward to getting back out there in the morning and making sure we are totally ready for qualifying. I would like to have a good race here in front of the company that made this bike. We have found a good base to work from and have a new engine to put in tomorrow that should help.”
13th Randy De Puniet 1.50.269 (33 laps): “We have started well and the feeling with the bike is great. The afternoon session was going well until we ran into a gearbox problem that we have suffered before. It sent me straight on a couple of times but thankfully I managed not to crash. Something was broken so we switched to the second bike but only got two laps in. Anyway, I want to be positive and the good thing is we have the pace so I'm sure will work on the problem tonight and fix it for tomorrow.”
Aspar Power Electronics Press Release
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