First day of practice for the German Grand Prix concludes with Alex Marquez and Alex Rins eighth and twelfth, despite a crash for the latter at the end of the first session.
It was a day of hard work in the garage of Alex Marquez and Alex Rins in Germany. The duo, who took a one-two 15 days ago in the Netherlands, set up their Honda machines for the German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, and ended the day eight and twelfth overall. Rins crashed on his final lap of the first runout, but was able to continue riding on Day 1.
The first 40 minutes of free practice allowed the pair to observe the significant wear suffered by the front tyres. After an intense working plan for their bikes’ suspensions, in the second session Marquez has lowered his lap times by 8 tenths, stopping the clock at 1’28.133. Rins finished a tenth behind, with a time of 1’28.242. The young Spaniard had lost the front end on Turn 12 in the morning, but continued his work in the afternoon and gradually improved his feeling by the end of Friday.
Tomorrow will see the final free practice, before qualifying at 12:35pm local time.
Alex Rins >> Audio
12th, 1:28.242 sec, 41 laps, 151 km
“Today was harder for us than we had expected. This is a circuit where last year we were very fast, but now with the Honda it is all new and we have to find a good setup. At Assen we had the same situation: The first day was difficult and then slowly we got better. Luckily, my foot injury is much better. I still have some discomfort, but it does not bother me as much as at the Dutch TT. This past week I worked hard with the physiotherapist and I have been doing specific exercises to be as fit as possible for this weekend. This circuit has many left hand corners and sometimes I don’t know where to put my foot, but the discomfort is minimal”.
Alex Marquez >> Audio
8th, 1:28.133 sec, 40 laps , 47 km
“Today was not my best day on the bike. This morning we suffered a lot with tyre wear due to the state of the track, which was not very good. In the afternoon we tried to improve and take that step we needed, because we were far off the top riders. In the end we improved but, as expected, the front guys did too. Tomorrow we will try to improve the bike and change things at some parts of the circuit where I have to improve. Now we have to reset and enjoy myself on the bike again tomorrow morning, to get a good time”.
