Positive start for Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa at MotorLand Aragon circuit, where they finish second and third, respectively, after first two practice sessions.
The third stop in Spain for the MotoGP World Championship began today at MotorLand Aragon circuit, with a prominent role played by the Repsol Honda team riders. World Championship leader Marc Marquez was second on an overall practice timesheet headed by Andrea Dovizioso, with Dani Pedrosa in third place.
Over the course of two practice sessions, Marquez and Pedrosa were able to obtain their first impressions of the Aragon circuit. The reigning World Champion was third in the first session and second in the afternoon, with a best time of 1:48.328 from 34 laps. On the other side of the garage, Dani Pedrosa was fifth in the first free practice and placed third in the second session, putting in 35 laps in total and clocking a 1:48.734.
The fourteenth round of the season will continue tomorrow with the final free practice session and qualifying, to decide the grid for Sunday’s race.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
2nd – 1:48.328, 34 laps, 173 km
“This is one of my favourite tracks on the World Championship calendar, our first day went well and I enjoyed riding in front of the home fans! I felt good on the bike and had a good pace, which is what we were focusing on the most today. The track was quite slippery but I like it like this! However, tomorrow we will try to define which tyres to use and refine the setup, then see if we can get onto the front row for Sunday and have a great race”.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd – 1:48.734, 35 laps, 178 km
“The practice sessions went well today. We tried the soft and hard tyres and it is still difficult to say which is better on the rear, but the intermediate worked well for us on the front. We have to keep putting in laps at this circuit to improve our feeling, because this is a track where the tyres give plenty of grip at the start and then performance drops off, so you need to get used to finding pace with used tyres. I think that getting a clean lap for setting a good time on it will be vital to qualifying tomorrow”.
