First practice sessions for the Repsol riders in Argentina see Quartararo in sixth place, Navarro in fifteenth and Herrera twenty-first.
With barely time to rest after the Grand Prix of The Americas, the Moto3 World Championship has moved to South America for the third round of the season: The Grand Prix of Republica Argentina. As happened in Qatar and Austin, Fabio Quartararo, Jorge Navarro and Maria Herrera made a Friday debut at a new track for them, but concluded the day with good feelings. The Frenchman was sixth on a day dominated by Danny Kent, with Navarro in fifteenth position and Maria Herrera twenty-first.
In the first morning session, the trio devoted their time to learning the track. The dirty surface was notable for its lack of grip and the Repsol Moto3 debutants had to work around this. Navarro placed fourteenth, Quartararo seventeenth and Herrera thirtieth on their maiden runout at Termas de Rio Hondo. Once familiar with the layout, the second free practice saw the three significantly improve their lap times. Quartararo stopped the clock in 1:49.892, Navarro in 1:50.465 and Herrera in 1:50.776.
Tomorrow the three Repsol riders have a third practice session in which to setup their bikes, before the qualifying session to decide the grid order for the Argentinian round of the Moto3 World Championship.
Fabio Quartararo
6th, 1:49.892 | 35 laps | 168 km.
“It was a tough day but we have prepared ourselves very well for tomorrow. We struggled to get going, as to start with the bike had little traction to work with on the track and the wind was very strong. However, in the afternoon session the conditions improved and we managed to take a step forward. I am very happy with the bike, I managed to set a good pace and I want to say thanks to my team.”
Jorge Navarro
15th | 1:50.465 | 34 laps | 163 km.
“In the first run I did in the afternoon, I noticed that the track had much better grip than in the morning and I could immediately ride with a good pace. It’s too bad that at the end of the session we had a little problem with the bike that did not allow us to improve, but we will try to fix this in order to continue working on the setup tomorrow. This circuit has some heavy braking –all on righthand corners– and you have to have confidence to face them.”
Maria Herrera
21th | 1:50.776 | 33 laps | 159 km
“At first I wasn’t familiar with the circuit. The track was dirty and the bike slid around a lot, but from the first moment I really liked it. It’s fun and very fast, and quite suits my riding style. Today I set a good time, but we need to perfect certain aspects in order to improve further tomorrow.”
