Jorge Lorenzo enjoys perfect opening day at Aragon
Yamaha 1-2-3
Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo completely dominated proceedings on the opening day of practice at MotorLand Aragon to top the combined timesheets by 0.683s from his title rival and teammate Valentino Rossi. Lorenzo set the fastest time in each sector in the afternoon, after earlier topping FP1, to complete the perfect day for the Spaniard.
Lorenzo took advantage of ideal conditions (Track temp. 40˚C) in the warmer afternoon session to set a 1’47.517 and incredibly was the only rider to break the 1’48 barrier. There were no winglets on either of the Yamaha M1’s but that didn’t stop Lorenzo from flying and setting a time that was only four-tenths off Marc Marquez’s Pole Record from 2014 (1’47.187).
Jorge Lorenzo – 1st / 1’47.517 / 30 laps – “There’s a big difference between how we have always felt here before and how we feel here now. The improvement is thanks to the work of the engineers, who improved the way the bikes work, so even at a difficult track such as Aragon we can be competitive. Our rivals don’t sleep so, so they will be strong and tomorrow’s pole will be fast. We need to further improve the setting to be able to make an even better pace.”
Rossi finished the day second on the combined timesheets, as the factory Movistar Yamaha team were able to hit the ground running after two private tests conducted at the track. The Italian holds a 23-point advantage in the standings over his teammate but had no answer to the Spaniard’s blistering pace on the first day of practice.
Valentino Rossi – 2nd / 1’48.200 / 37 laps – “We did a test last month at Aragón, because it’s our test track. We decided on this circuit because in the past we suffered a lot here on the Yamaha. The start of the weekend was not so bad because we could start with a good basis setting and in this practice both me and Jorge were very strong, but Jorge was a little bit faster, so we need to continue to work and try to improve in some sectors just a little bit. After that the tyre choice for the race will be very important. You can go with the medium or the hard, right now it’s still too early to say. Tomorrow we need to improve the setting and make the right choice for the tyres. We tried the softer tyre at the end of the session but our main rival didn’t. If they had done so, they would have been at our level, but as long as we are able to fight with them on Sunday it’s OK, because they are usually a bit stronger here. We have to work on braking, to be able to go deep into the corner yet have a good agility.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith (+0.801s) completed an all-Yamaha top three, as he ended the day as the leading Satellite rider in third. The British rider continued the form that saw him claim his career best MotoGP result last time out at Misano (2nd).
Bradley Smith – 3rd / 1’48.318 / 38 laps – “It has been a positive start to the Aragon MotoGP weekend and 3rd is definitely a good position to close day one in. As soon as we kicked off proceedings this morning, I felt comfortable on the bike and I was able to quickly find a solid rhythm. Then in the afternoon, we worked more with the hard compound in order to evaluate the potential for the race. As a conclusion, the front is positive yet the rear is not quite as strong but it is still working well at this track. Moreover, we made some steps forward with the electronics regarding both the engine braking and the traction control which I am pleased about. So tomorrow, we will now work a bit more on the race pace and the setting in order to have a good performance for the whole GP on Sunday. Also, I would be pleased if we could improve the front stability in some corners, especially when braking on the maximum lean angle. Yet, to close the day in 3rd is a good start, so we will carry on our work and hopefully qualify on the front two rows.”
The Repsol Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa (+0.841s) and Marc Marquez (+0.884s) were fourth and fifth respectively, as they decided to stick with the harder option rear for the whole of FP2. This was in contrast to the rest of the leading riders who all opted for the softer option rear available to them in the last ten minutes of the session to set a flying lap.
Dani Pedrosa 4th / 1’48.358 – “Today we had some problems with the general settings and also with the brakes and so I had to stay in the garage to resolve them and we could not put in all the laps we would have liked. We were able to test the tyres -both the hard and medium compounds- although I do not know yet which will be the right choice. The medium is faster but it is unknown whether it can last the entire race. I hope that tomorrow we can have more track time, in order to continue working to improve our pace and have a good qualifying session.”
Marc Marquez 5th / 1’48.401 – “Today was a day in which we tried a lot of things out; with both the front and the rear, we ran hard and medium tyres in order to have a better understanding of their performance for Sunday. We also worked on the setup of the bike, which is an area where we still have room for improvement. We must also take into account that Jorge is riding at a high level; he rode two great sessions today and is a small step ahead of us. Dani is also riding with a very strong pace. Let’s see if tomorrow we can continue to improve and get up to the same level as Jorge.”
Pol Espargaro, (+0.928s) on the second Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1, was sixth fastest on the combined timesheets, as the top six found themselves separated by almost a second.
Pol Espargaro – 6th / 1’48.445 / 37 laps – “I really wouldn’t say that today has been the best day of the year for me, however considering the huge margin of improvement that we still have to make, a top six finish is a truly satisfying end to the opening day of action at Aragon. This morning when I got on the bike, my feeling was not the best straight away and then again in the second practice session, I struggled quite a lot with changing direction, especially in the fast corners. Yet, I remain convinced that we can rectify this situation for tomorrow morning after looking deeply into today’s data as our goal is to still qualify on the front two rows of the grid.”
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro benefitted from the increased levels of grip in the afternoon to improve by almost two seconds in FP2 and finish seventh. Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone were eighth and ninth respectively, while Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) completed the top ten ahead of his teammate Yonny Hernandez.
Aleix Espargaro 7th / 1.48.524 – “It’s been a positive day in my opinion because we managed to improve a situation that seemed to be difficult. This morning I didn’t have a good feeling with the rear tyre, but talking with my crew we had the intuition that it wasn’t only a problem of set-up and we focused more on building confidence with the track and to get some other information. In fact in the afternoon, with new tyre, I could improve a lot my lap time, thus confirming that the technical direction was good. I’m happy also because we are not so far from the top, for sure having tested here helped us to have some points of reference even if the conditions are very different and we still have many parameters to set up. Electronics and set-up still have room for improvements and I’m confident that tomorrow we will make another step forward.”
Andrea Dovizioso 8th / 1’48.575 – “It wasn’t a very good day for us, even though there’s not much of a gap to second place. This afternoon we encountered some difficulty and we couldn’t do as many laps as we would have liked. We are working on the electronics and in particular on the mapping, but we have not yet been able to find an entirely satisfactory solution and this didn’t allow us to do the usual job of fine-tuning the set-up. In any case, we are positive and so now will work to try and be more competitive tomorrow.”
Andrea Iannone 9th / 1’48.615 – “I am not very pleased with my time, but in the end, considering also my physical condition, I think I got the best result possible today. I can’t deny that my shoulder hurts a lot, but I have already found myself having to manage this sort of situation this year and I am also aiming to do my best here as well. I didn’t take any pain-killers today: tomorrow we will see how I feel and if necessary I will take something, because it will be tough to get through the entire weekend like this. It will however be essential to improve our performance on the track, because we are a bit behind and I am not satisfied with today’s time.”
Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) ended FP1 in fifth, but had to settle for 12th overall after only managing to improve by three-tenths in the afternoon.
Scott Redding 12th / 1’49.007 – “I’m feeling okay after today. We still have the same problem on used tyres and we’re struggling for traction a little, but in the afternoon I felt good. When we put in the new tyre I was baulked a bit on my fastest lap so I’m not really disappointed because I don’t feel that this final position reflects where we are this weekend. I felt quite comfortable on the bike and now we’re going to try and find something to help with rear grip for free practice and qualifying tomorrow.”
LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow remains optimistic despite a rather frustrating opening day at Aragon, a circuit at which he finished on the podium last year.
The Briton made a solid start in the morning session as he went eighth fastest, but he slipped back in the afternoon and eventually ended down in 13th spot – a second and a half behind Jorge Lorenzo who set the pace on Friday. However, Crutchlow believes he and his team have made some valuable strides and is now hopeful of considerable improvement in Saturday’s qualifying.
Cal Crutchlow 13th / 1’49.064 – “It was a terrible day position-wise, but we got some things done. We went into the race weekend with a plan and, to an extent, I think it worked, but we definitely need to look at the data tonight to see where we can improve. We have to try our best tomorrow because we need to qualify well for Sunday’s race. I think I will be more optimistic tomorrow morning and afternoon hopefully. The team is working well, I’m pleased with how we are working together – we just need to improve the lap time and also my feeling with the tyre as today it was not great with the rear tyre.”
Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera was the leading Open class rider in 14th after walking away unhurt from an FP1 crash at turn two.
Maverick Viñales 16th / 1m49.680 – “I have a strange feeling about today because my performance isn’t as good as it normally is and I have no clue yet on what could be wrong. We did test here so we have some reference and the machine is pretty-much the same we are used to, as well as the approach we took with the work, but I cannot feel confident with the machine. I have a lot of sliding from the rear of the bike and it looks like the GSX-RR has changed its behaviour even if we didn’t make major changes. For sure the machine and my own potential is much higher, we only need to keep calm, revise the data of these two early sessions and find a direction to find back our usual good performance.”
Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) had ended FP1 in 11th, but had to settle for 18th at the end of the day.
LCR Honda rider Jack Miller experienced a mixed opening day, the Australian was hoping to build on his encouraging showing at Misano last time out.
Miller enjoyed a positive start on Friday and finished the morning’s free practice session as the 15th fastest rider with a lap time of 1’50.287. However, after making a few changes in a bid to improve further in the afternoon, he lost momentum and ended the day down in 21st position on the timesheets. Miller, though, insists he remains optimistic for the days ahead.
Jack Miller #43 (21st – 1’50.157) – “We had a real positive start today with the feeling of the bike, but we went backwards a little bit this afternoon as we were trying to look for a couple of things that didn’t quite come off. But we’ve got some more ideas coming through to test so it’s positive in general and we look forward to tomorrow and doing a good job then. We were focusing on the harder tyre today, so tomorrow will be more about the soft and doing the qualifying lap. We were looking for a bit more front stability this morning and we struggled with the heavy braking on the back straight, so we looked to fix that but we just ended up creating a couple of dramas in another area. So we took a little step backwards, but we’ll try and improve on things tomorrow.”
Toni Elias made his debut for the Forward Racing team and ended the day in 24th overall, 3.6s off the pace of Lorenzo.
Toni Elias – 24th / 1’51.162 / 37 laps – “As it’s only the first day on a new bike, I am satisfied. At Indy, after free practice, I was six seconds behind the other Open bikes. Here the gap is smaller and I’m positive for qualifying. First impressions are good: I get on well with the engine and electronics, but I have yet to find the right feeling with the front and a little of rear grip. I will have to do as many kilometers as possible to adapt the bike geometry and suspension to my riding style, but I have already made a step forward by more than two seconds since this morning. I can’t wait to get back on track tomorrow.”
Record-breaking Rabat rules opening day in Moto2
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Rabat set a 1’53.164 in glorious sunshine at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón to finally beat Marc Marquez’s lap record (1’53.296), which had stood since 2011. The Spaniard was in blistering form in the afternoon and ended the session 0.135s ahead of Idemitsu Honda Team Asia’s Takaaki Nakagami on a day that saw less than a second separate the top 17 riders.
Nakagami improved by over two seconds from FP1 in warmer conditions this afternoon to end the day second overall. Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins completed the provisional front row, as he found himself 0.188s off the pace of Rabat while experimenting with a new 2016-spec Kalex chassis.
Forward Racing’s Simone Corsi (+0.208s) ended the day in fourth overall ahead of Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes (+0.377s). Lowes had earlier topped FP1 but struggled to improve as temperatures increased in the afternoon.
Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Luis Salom (+0.449s) was sixth fastest ahead of championship leader Johann Zarco on the Ajo Motorsport Kalex. Zarco found himself 0.611s off the pace of Rabat, as he decided to spend FP2 working on his race setup on used tyres. The Frenchman has a chance to lift the Moto2™ title come Sunday if results go his way in what will be the 100th Moto2™ race since the class began in 2010.
Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Julian Simon (QMMF Racing) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) completed the top ten.
Mika Kallio completed his debut for the QMMF Racing Team in 13th overall to finish just ahead of Lorenzo Baldassarri (14th) who announced on Friday that he had re-signed with his Forward Racing team for 2016. His replacement in the Italtrans Racing Team, Edgar Pons, was in 18th ahead of Tech 3’s Xavi Vierge (20th) who also announced he had secured a new deal to ride a Mistral 610 next season.
There were crashes for Randy Krummenacher and Xavier Simeon but both riders were unhurt and ended the day in 23rd and 24th place respectively.
Bastianini dominates Friday in Moto3
Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Bastianini was on fire at MotorLand Aragon as he aims to close the 55-point gap to Danny Kent in the standings. The 17-year-old Italian continued the form that saw him take his maiden Moto3™ victory last time out at Misano to set a 1’58.875 in the warmer afternoon session. This was only half a second off Alex Rins’ Pole Record from last year (1’53.296) on a day that saw less than a second separate the top 15 riders. Even a crash at the end of FP2 didn’t dampen Bastianini’s spirits after an excellent day for the man in second place in the Moto3 World Championship.
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira was just 0.018s off the pace of Bastianini in second, as he continues to benefit from the new KTM chassis and swingarm that debuted in Misano. Jorge Navarro showed no ill effects from the crash in FP1 at the San Marino GP that forced him to miss the rest of the weekend as he set the third fastest time on his return to the track. Incredibly, he was just one thousandth of a second further back than Oliveira, as 0.019s separated the provisional front row.
Mapfre Team Mahindra’s Jorge Martin (+0.187s) was fourth fastest ahead of Phillip Oettl (+0.247s) on the Schedl GP Racing KTM. Leopard Racing’s Kent found himself down in sixth, 0.362s off his main title rival Bastianini.
Efren Vazquez (Leopard Racing), Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold), Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) completed the top ten.
Sena Yamada is substituting for the injured Fabio Quartararo in the Estrella Galicia 0,0 team and acquitted himself well in 21st. Scotsman John McPhee (SAXORINT RTG) ended the day in 30th.
