Repsol Honda riders dominate opening day of practice sessions for the San Marino Grand Prix, placing first and second on the combined timesheet and separated by just 33 milliseconds.
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa concluded the opening day of the San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix with the first and second fastest times, respectively, on the combined timesheet. The top two riders in the MotoGP World Championship standings did not let up the pace at the Misano Marco Simoncelli Circuit, occupying the top two spots in both of the Free Practice sessions held on Friday. They were separated by just 0.033s on the day’s combined lap times.
Marquez showed his cards right from the opening moments of the morning session, quickly going fastest of the MotoGP field. After 21 laps, the Repsol Honda rider had stopped the clock with a best time of 1’34.476. On the other side of the garage, teammate Pedrosa took second after completing 18 laps, with his speediest lap 0.222s off that of Marquez.
In the afternoon practice session, both would make improvements. Marquez racked up a further 22 laps, ending the day with the fastest time: 1’34.200. Pedrosa was hot on his heels, concluding the second session just 0.033 slower. Both Repsol Honda riders look to be in good form at Misano so far.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 1:34.698, 18 laps, 76 km.
FP2 – 1:34.233, 20 laps, 85 km.
“In general, today we managed to have two good practice sessions. The only problem is that we are lacking some grip in the rear. It was hard to find the necessary traction during the sessions and we hope to be able to improve this tomorrow. The track condition didn’t help us today either, as the asphalt wasn’t very grippy. Despite all this, tomorrow we will be looking for a good qualifying session ‒which is the important thing.”
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:34.476, 21 laps, 89 km.
FP2 – 1:34.200, 22 laps, 93 km.
“I am happy with how things went today, and how we worked. I felt pretty good from the start and found some good reference points; there’s only a few places, like on the fast corner, where I still need to make some improvements in order to go faster. I’m running slightly wide onto the astroturf at that point. I hope that we can rectify this tomorrow, keep working well and get in even better shape for the race.”
