Alex Rins clocks fastest time of the day, whilst teammate Alex Marquez makes progress on first visit to Le Mans.
The opening practice sessions for the French Grand Prix began in normal fashion for the Moto3 riders, with only the slightest interruption due to rain at the end of the second session. In the morning run, Alex Rins showed his comfort at the French track with the second quickest time, behind Maverick Viñales. Alex Marquez was eleventh on his first encounter with Le Mans, just over 1.5 seconds off the best time.
In the afternoon, Rins continued to improve. He was amongst the frontrunners throughout the session and, with 13 minutes remaining, clocked his best time on his 12th of 14 laps. A light shower brought the session to the close with five minutes remaining and nobody was able to better his 1’44.147 lap.
Alex Marquez also made progress in his afternoon runout, undertaking 15 laps of the circuit. On his 12th of these, he took a best register of 1’45.988. That put him 1.841 off his teammate. Tomorrow’s weather forecast is for rain, making the second day of practice a more difficult prospect.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP1: 1:45.560, 16 laps, 67km.
FP2: 1:44.147, 14 laps, 59km.
“The first day has been positive. We are very happy because we have achieved one of the goals we had set before arriving at Le Mans: Beating last year’s fastest time. Today we set a good pace, but still need to improve some things for tomorrow. I do not know if we will be able to, because there is rain forecast, but we will try to do a good job under all conditions and have some fun on the bike.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP1: 1:46.796, 16 laps, 67km.
FP2: 1:45.988, 15 laps, 63km.
“I felt pretty good on what for me was a day of adapting to a new circuit. Little-by-little I kept lowering my times, and this is important. We still have room for improvement, especially with our lines and with a few things on the bike. Lap-by-lap we have adapted to the circuit. We’ll see tomorrow if the weather is dry for us, but if not then thankfully we have a good setup for the dry already. In wet I also feel good with the bike, so I’ll just have to do my best, whatever. I like the first chicane and the second sector is a bit trickier, but from the start things have suited me quite well. For qualifying we are clear about what we need to do, but we still have room for improvement so we will try to lower the times.”
