Lack of grip hinders Dani Pedrosa on first day of practice. Marc Márquez tops morning timesheet but suffers scary afternoon crash –escaping without serious injury.
The Repsol Honda riders had mixed fortunes on the opening day of the Italian Grand Prix. Dani Pedrosa ended the day fifth on the timesheets, focused on solving a problem with traction on day one at Mugello. Teammate Marc Marquez finished the morning session at the top of the ladder, with the fastest time of all the MotoGP riders, but in the afternoon he suffered a big crash at high speed. The Spaniard fortunately escaped with only bruises and a grazed chin.
With the asphalt still somewhat wet after rainfall from Thursday, Marc Marquez performed best under the conditions and took the fastest time of the opening free practice session. The Repsol Honda rider had a light crash when he accelerated on the grassy run-off section, but was unhurt in the incident. Teammate Dani Pedrosa finished the session in eighth place.
In the afternoon, in dry conditions, Pedrosa focused on improving the grip with his Honda RC213V, ending the session with the fifth best time overall of 1’49.383. That was 1.008 off Jorge Lorenzo, who was fastest. After nine laps of Mugello, Marquez took a heavy, high speed crash on the start/finish straight. He landed on the grass and, despite the high speed of the crash, he left the mobile clinic with only a chin abrasion, strained neck and bruises to his right shoulder, arm and leg.
Marc Márquez
