Repsol Honda Team riders complete first day of practice with leader of the World Championship in tenth place and teammate in nineteenth.
The tenth round of the MotoGP season got underway at the Spielberg circuit on Friday, amidst low temperatures and difficulties for Repsol Honda Team riders Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in achieving a good pace. The pair finished the first free practice session with Marquez in sixth and Pedrosa twenty-second -the latter not completing the session due to a crash. Both riders improved their times in the afternoon, but World Championship leader Marquez closed the day with a time of 1:25.039 for tenth place. Pedrosa finished nineteenth with a time of 1:26.130.
Marc Marquez – 10th 1:25.039 >> Audio
“It has basically been a day to gather data for the race and to find the reference points with a MotoGP bike for this track, which is new. It’s short but it has many braking points, and we haven’t ridden here with carbon brakes before. All in all, I’m generally happy with how it went today; we’re tenth but it’s not our real position, as we didn’t use a new and softer rear spec tyre. We’ll continue working in the same direction tomorrow, as I think it’s the right one, with the aim to be at least in the top five and to fight for the podium on Sunday.”
Dani Pedrosa – 19th 1:26.130 >> Audio
“It has been a demanding day with such low temperatures. I particularly struggled this morning and I had quite a fast crash, losing time and honestly also some confidence. Things went a bit better this afternoon, with a little warmer temperature, even if it was still difficult to put heat in the tyres. The fact that we didn’t know the track so well didn’t help either, but we’ll continue working and we look to improve tomorrow.”
