Repsol Honda Team riders complete the first day of Catalan Grand Prix in second and third place, respectively, as well as leading the first practice session.
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa made a good start at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday, on the first day of practice for the seventh round of the MotoGP season. The Repsol Honda Team riders topped the first free practice session, then finished the day with Marquez in second place and Pedrosa third on the combined timesheets – headed by Aleix Espargaro.
The first day in Barcelona provided evidence of the evolution of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, who maintained a good pace and solid times in both practice sessions. First and second, respectively, in FP1, both improved by a few tenths before the end of the day to stop the clock at 1:41.443 – Marc Marquez – and 1:41.789 – Dani Pedrosa.
Tomorrow sees a further 75 minutes of practice time, before qualifying to decide Sunday’s grid.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
2nd – 1:41.443, 35 laps, 165 km
“I’m happy because I felt pretty good on the bike. We are working with a focus on the second part of the race, because at this track the tyres degrade a lot, but it’s the same for everyone. We did some tests and it seems that we have solved a few of the problems we have had, but we must continue with this because I still don’t feel quite right. However, I think we have definitely taken a step forward. That is the important thing: Improving and getting increasingly closer to the top time. Anyway, we still have work to do to prepare the second part of the race when tyres drop down.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd – 1:41.789, 40 laps, 189 km
“Thankfully the track dried after yesterday’s rain and we made the most of this to work a lot with the tyres. The asphalt was not in ideal condition but we tried some changes to the setup for the rear; tomorrow we will continue to see if we can improve both on the entry and exit of corners. Today we put on both the hard tyre and the soft compound and, although the grip was not perfect, both are very similar and there is not much difference, this will be key for the race. I also tested two different swing arms, and we will decide which one we will use after checking carefully the data, as both have pluses and minuses.”
