World Championship leader places second on Day 1 at Jerez, and teammate Alex Marquez goes eleventh on timesheet.
On a sunny first day of Moto3 practice, Repsol riders Alex Rins and Alex Marquez again showed a high level of competitiveness at Jerez. Rins, coming into this race off a brilliant victory in Austin, was back among the fastest drivers in Moto3 with the second quickest time of the day. Teammate Marquez was eleventh for his efforts.
In the first free practice, Rins set the fifth fastest time –1’48.861– on the 16th of his 17 laps. Alex Marquez was twelfth in the morning session with a best time of 1:49.695.
In the afternoon, both riders continued working on the setups of their bikes. Rins moved up to second at the end of the session, behind Jonas Folger, and went a second quicker than in the morning. His 1’47.685 lap, his antepenultimate of 15, took him up the timesheet. Ninth in the session, Marquez also lowered his best time –by just over half a second. He was eleventh overall.
Tomorrow, the second day of practice will serve to decide the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Spain.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP1: 1:48.861, 17 laps, 75 km.
FP2: 1:47.685, 15 laps, 66 km.
“Today went pretty well. In the first session we were six-tenths off the fastest time. In the afternoon we started out with used tyres in order to check our pace. After we fitted fresh rubber, we improved greatly. At the end we had a small mechanical problem that did not allow us to do two more laps, but I think we have a good base for tomorrow.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP1: 1:49.695, 16 laps, 71 km.
FP2: 1:48.918, 17 laps, 75 km.
“In the morning the track was a bit dirty and it was hard for me to pick up the pace, not feeling entirely comfortable with the bike. But I am satisfied with the work done in the first session because I knew that in the afternoon we could improve significantly. And that we did, but we still have room for further improvement. Tomorrow we have to keep working hard, because I have not yet had the good feeling at this track that we had in preseason.”
