Under sweltering heat, Joan Mir finishes eighteenth and teammate Iker Lecuona in twenty-fourth.
The fourth round of the MotoGP World Championship season, the Spanish Grand Prix, is being held at Jerez this weekend in the middle of a heatwave, which caused the asphalt temperatures to reach 48ºC.
Mir set his best time of the day during P1, with a 1:37.850 that placed him fifteenth. In the second session, the Repsol Honda Team rider suffered two small crashes, incidents that led him to ending the day eighteenth on the combined timesheets.
Mir will have to go through Q1 on Saturday and place among the Top 2 in order to be able to access Q2, the session that will define the starting grid for both the sprint race and Sunday’s race itself.
Iker Lecuona made his debut with the Repsol Honda Team as a substitute rider for Marc Márquez, trying to adapt his riding to the Honda RC213V. He set a best time of 1:39.274, for 24th overall. Like his teammate, Lecuona will have to go through Q1 on Saturday.
JOAN MIR – 18th 1’37.850
“It was not the best day today honestly, it was very complicated. We had two crashes today, one at Turn Five and one at Turn Six – the second one was a bit bigger but we are OK. When temperatures are high like this it makes everything more complicated, every point in the lap is more critical. Our feeling in the morning was not too bad but it looks like the race will be quite hot so we need to work to prepare the bike and ourselves for these conditions.”
IKER LECUONA – 24th 1’39.274
“What a day! It is incredible to come back to MotoGP and with a team like the Repsol Honda Team, it has been a real pleasure to work with all of them. The crash today at Turn 13 was frustrating, finally I am a racer and I always want to be faster! We understood why we crashed and already for tomorrow the team have suggested a few things to improve the bike and try some things. I am quite close to Bradl considering our circumstances and this is something we have to focus on and be positive about.”
