First day of practice concludes with Marquez second in the combined classification, with Rins and Herrera eighth and sixteenth, respectively.
The World Championship arrived in Europe on Friday and has hit one of most historic circuits on the calendar, Jerez, in the first of four events to be held in Spain this season. In front of their home fans, Alex Marquez, Alex Rins and Maria Herrera made a good start to the Spanish GP for the Repsol Moto3 outfit, finishing second, eighth and sixteenth place on the combined standings for the two practice sessions.
From the very first session, Alex Rins and Alex Marquez made clear the advantage of their good work during the preseason at the track, setting the second and fourth fastest times, respectively. Marquez was the first to go round in under 1’48 and his 1’47.699 time was the second best lap of the day. Rins was fourth in the morning and managed to lower his times in the second session for sixth place. His quickest lap was a 1’48.118, and left him eighth overall.
On her return to the World Championship, Maria Herrera made excellent progress. Eighteenth in the first session, the winner of the most recent race at the circuit in the FIM CEV Repsol placed thirteenth in the second runout, after riding in the Top 10 during the final minutes. Her fastest lap was just 1.020s off Isaac Viñales’ timesheet-topping time, and put her sixteenth overall.
After a final practice session at 9am local time tomorrow, qualifying takes place from 12:35pm.
Alex Rins >> AUDIO
8th, 1:48.118, 36 laps, 159 Km
“Compared to the Grand Prix of Argentina and previous rounds, I feel pretty good on the bike at this track. This might be because we have references from testing here in preseason. We found a setup very quickly, but we are suffering a little –and I think this is the case for all the Hondas– when it gets hotter and we have less grip. Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think we can improve our times.”
Alex Marquez >> AUDIO
2nd, 1:47.699, 35 laps, 155 km
“Considero que este primer día en Jerez ha sido positivo. En los primeros entrenamientos de la mañana, las temperaturas eran más bajas y eso ha sido mejor para la moto y para nosotros, lo que nos ha permitido rodar más rápido. En la segunda sesión ha subido la temperatura y nos ha costado a todos mucho más. Para mañana tendremos que tener en cuenta las altas temperaturas de cara a los entrenamientos de clasificación, porque por la mañana se rueda más fácil y rápido y a mediodía cuesta un poco más, así que estaremos centrados en trabajar este punto para conseguir un buen ritmo de cara a la carrera”.
María Herrera >> AUDIO >> AUDIO CAT
16ª, 1:48.745, 36 vueltas, 159 km
“En el primer entrenamiento he ido encontrando las sensaciones sobre la moto poco a poco y sabía que todavía tenía margen de mejora. En la sesión de la tarde, hemos seguido evolucionando, me he encontrado bien y hemos bajado los tiempos, aunque sé que aún me falta mejorar las trazadas. Cada vez me siento mejor sobre la moto, la voy conociendo más y me gusta bastante. Comparado con el fin de semana del FIM CEV Repsol de Jerez, aquí me siento mejor porque los pilotos son más rápidos y no tienes que ser tú la que tira. Poco a poco me voy acercando a sus tiempos y estoy muy contenta”.
