The French GP got underway today with the teams looking at the skies but thankfully the black clouds held off until the final five minutes of this afternoon's second session for the Moto3 class, meaning they were able to complete the majority of work planned in free practice. Alex Rins set the pace on the dry track, closely followed by Jonas Folger, Luis Salom and Maverick Viñales, who look to be the main contenders for victory on Sunday should the conditions hold firm, although at Le Mans nothing is ever certain.
MAPFRE Aspar rider Folger has made a typically strong start to the weekend, finishing this morning's session with the third fastest time before going second fastest in the afternoon, losing top spot only in the final few minutes by just 0.006 seconds. On the other side of the MAPFRE Aspar garage Eric Granado completed his first laps of Le Mans today, gradually gathering information about the track and building his pace before finishing with the 29th fastest time of the day.
2nd Jonas Folger 1.44.153 (30 laps): “It has been a very positive first day here in France and I think we have found the way forward for the rest of the weekend. We took a big step forward with the set-up in the second session. We always seem to be fast on Fridays but the important thing now is to maintain this pace consistently throughout the rest of the weekend. According to the forecast it looks likely we'll have rain tomorrow but hopefully we'll get some dry track time because we have a few modifications in mind. We worked on getting the bike turning in better today and tried to improve our pace on used tyres. We learnt a lot about the way the bike reacts to changes with the set-up and it has made me more confident so I am happy.”
29th Eric Granado 1.47.112 (33 laps): “Today was my first ever time at Le Mans and I like it. Things went well for us this morning and we were able to gather a lot of information about the track. In the second session I struggled to go as fast so we need to improve this. At the end of the session when we put new tyres on it started to rain so that was a shame. Hopefully the weather is kind to us so that we can get more dry time because I like the track.”
Mapfre Aspar Moto3 Press Release
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