The main players of the Motorcycle World Championships today experienced at the Motorland Aragón Circuit, how the rain thwarted an eagerly awaited double event day, in which Marc Márquez set the second fastest time with the track completely wet. For the first time this season, the World Championship contingent had two lots of free practice session on the first day, although, with the 125cc riders taking to the asphalt first, the rain began to fall, thwarting the first set-up testing.
The World Championships leader, Marc Márquez, did not want to take any risks in such tricky conditions as, going out onto the asphalt when the first drops began to fall, without soaking the asphalt sufficiently as to need tyres for the wet, would mean exposure to a high risk of losing grip in the areas of the circuit where more water may have fallen than in others. As such, the Repsol rider limited himself to warm-up riding of the Derbi RSA and, testing of the performance of a wet tyre for a few laps.
In the second session, the rain was much more persistent and therefore, the Repsol rider and his team decided to check out his feel of the Aragón track with the track completely flooded. Having hardly ridden in these conditions throughout the course of the current season, Marc Márquez made slow progress, finishing the session in second position, six tenths off the best time. Not an especially significant time given that, the expectation that the conditions on Sunday will be dry and, the Repsol rider rode all the time with a greater margin of confidence.
Marc Márquez, 2’13.868 sec, 19 laps, 96 km. >> Audio
“It’s been quite a strange day because we were very happy to have two practice sessions available to us instead of just one but, in the end, we only had the chance to do a few laps. In the morning, it had just begun to rain and the track was neither dry nor wet, so we couldn’t do anything, just ride the bike. At least in the afternoon, we could test in the wet and see this track’s level of grip which I think is very good. I tried some adjustments for the wet so we could get an idea of the handling, and it went quite well. In any case, it’s not possible to draw too many conclusions because, at least I didn’t push it to the limit to avoid the risk of falling. Let’s hope that tomorrow the weather improves and we can ride in the dry, which is when we can really ride in our way, plus for the fans and the spectacle, it will be much better”.
