Repsol Honda rider shows his competitiveness after operation last Saturday. Hiroshi Aoyama finishes twentieth on Friday.
The Jerez circuit hosted the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, which meant the return to action of Marc Marquez less than a week after suffering a broken little finger on his left hand. The reigning MotoGP World Champion showed no signs of weakness, finishing third on the timesheets, 0.254s off the best time set by Jorge Lorenzo. On the other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage, Hiroshi Aoyama –again standing in for Dani Pedrosa– finished twentieth.
In the first practice session, caution was the strategy for Marc Marquez. He completed 17 laps to test his performance level. He finished 7 tenths off the fastest time, a difference that he lowered significantly in the second session. The Repsol Honda Team rider stopped the clock at 1:39 428, just 0.128s off Lorenzo –who failed to improve on his morning time. Aoyama, twentieth in the first free practice session, improved nearly 4 tenths from the first to the second session, ending in seventeenth place –twentieth overall.
After the two practice sessions today, tomorrow will see two further free practice sessions and then qualifying, which will decide the starting grid for Sunday.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
3rd – 1:39.428, 33 laps, 146 km
“We can be happy that my hand has responded quite well today – as well as could be expected. It hurts a lot but at least I can put in the laps. We’ll see if tomorrow it is better if it doesn’t swell up. As for the bike, I’m feeling pretty good with it and we are working well, but we need to improve some things – especially in the afternoon – when the track temperature rises. The race will be at this time, so we have to improve the setup accordingly.”
Hiroshi Aoyama >> Audio
20th – 1:40.678, 37 laps, 164 km
“Unfortunately Dani wasn’t able to return to racing at his home Grand Prix so I am replacing him again. Compared to the last two races this first day has been positive for us. Obviously we still need to improve but at the end of FP2 I had a better rhythm and was able to be faster but made some small mistakes. It’s not easy but we must progress further tomorrow as we know all the other riders will also.”
