Dry weather for both practice sessions as Marquez debuts in fine form in Britain. Teammate Rins focuses on race setup.
Amidst intermittent sunshine poking through the clouds at Silverstone, the opening day of practice for the Moto3 British Grand Prix was undertaken in dry conditions. The two Repsol Moto3 riders had a positive start to the weekend, as both worked on the setup of their machines with Sunday in mind.
In the morning session of this third race weekend in as many weeks, Alex Rins was fourth fastest and teammate Alex Marquez placed fifth. Luis Salom was quickest in the session, with Rins and Marquez more than a second off –albeit with their own times separated by 7 milliseconds.
In the afternoon, Rins and Marquez –riding at Silverstone for the first time– took a step forward, lowering their morning times by almost two seconds. Marquez was fifth in the session with a time of 2:15.155, whilst Rins was just behind in sixth with a fastest lap of 2:15.378.
Tomorrow sees the third Free Practice session taking place, followed by qualifying for the British Grand Prix.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP1 – 2:17.270, 14 laps, 83 km.
FP2 – 2:15.378, 16 laps, 94 km.
“I felt very comfortable on this first day at Silverstone. We’re eight-tenths off the top, but we improved a lot from the first to the second session and this is the important thing. The times for everyone are fast for a first day and we lack a little pace, but I think that tomorrow with less wind we can improve. We tried a few setup changes which didn’t convince us at all, but in the second session we worked out a good adjustment.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP1 – 2:17.277, 14 laps, 83 km.
FP2 – 2:15.155, 16 laps, 94 km.
“I am very happy with this first day at Silverstone. I’d been warned that it would be hard work to get on the pace here, and not to worry if I was down the order. We were focused for the first session and knew what we had to do, right from the start. In the second session we took a step forward and were able to ride consistently. When you go to a new circuit, that is the hard part. We will study the telemetry this afternoon and see what we can do to improve, both with the bike and my riding style.”
