Repsol Honda team rider heads first practice session for Malaysian Grand Prix, but does not participate in the second due to gastroenteritis. Hiroshi Aoyama places twentieth.
The first day of practice at the Sepang International Circuit ended with Marc Marquez as the fastest rider of the day, but he only participated in one of the two sessions. The Repsol Honda team rider stopped the clock at 2:01.210 in the morning run, in which stand-in teammate Hiroshi Aoyama was twentieth with a time of 2:02.691. In the afternoon, Marquez elected against riding and returned to the team hotel to recover from gastroenteritis, from which he has been suffering for the past two days. Aoyama was tenth in FP2, in which the track surface gradually dried after rainfall at midday.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
1st – 2:01.210 16 laps, 89 km
“In the morning I didn’t feel very well –I’ve had gastroenteritis for the last two days– but I was able to go out and ride even though I was not at 100%. After the session and the effort I put in, I began feeling worse, because gastroenteritis also dehydrates you. Looking at the track conditions, we decided not to go out. Tomorrow we’ll try to improve and I think it has been good for me not go out there, and to instead save myself for Saturday and especially Sunday.”
Hiroshi Aoyama >> Audio
20th – 2:03.901. 30 laps. 166 km
“This morning I was able to work to get some feeling with the bike in the dry. In the end we tried a setting change on the second bike that I liked enough and that I felt more confident with, but I could only do three laps before the flag. I think we have a margin of improvement there. The plan was to continue working in that direction in the afternoon but as it rained, we instead tried out both the wet tyre options, the soft and medium. I had a good feeling with both and I was more competitive than in the morning. I also tried the intermediate spec, as I had never experienced them before. I hope that tomorrow we’ll have a bit more stable conditions and that we can work more on the bike setting.”
