Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró finished the first two Free Practice sessions for the Italian Grand Prix in thirteenth and fourteenth place, respectively.
The first day of action at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was held under clear skies and with favourable track conditions.
Marc Márquez, who is facing his first two consecutive weeks of racing this year, was able to improve his best time from the morning during the second Free Practice session of the day. The Repsol Honda Team rider was less than 1 second off the top spot and ended the day thirteenth,with a best lap of 1:46.973.
His teammate, Pol Espargaró, was very consistent on his first day at Mugello as a Repsol Honda Team rider. He was twelfth fastest in the morning and thirteenth in the afternoon, reducing the gap to the pace setter to under 1 second in the second session. Espargaró finished the day fourteenth overall, thanks to his 1:46.986 lap.
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 13th 1’46.973
“We did not change the setting of the bike a lot today, we worked more on small things and the position of the bike to help my riding. We need to be patient; I am not riding like I want to be riding and we could understand our limitations quite quickly. I knew it would be a hard weekend before we started. Tomorrow we will see the situation but for the moment we are focusing on ourselves, doing our laps and working on what we need to do. At the end of FP2 we did a bit of a time attack and were able to improve our position a bit.”
POL ESPARGARÓ – 14th 1’46.986
“Today we were working a lot to improve the grip, we are struggling on corner entry – not on the brakes but on the last part where you release and turn the bike. Also with a lot of lean we are looking for something more. Under braking, the first corner and the first sector I feel good, even if our fastest lap didn’t show it. We need to clarify some things for tomorrow and try what’s possible. A night for the brain to process everything will help a lot after not coming here last year. Tomorrow we will come back with fresh ideas and more energy.”
