Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa fifth and third, respectively, on opening day of practice for Czech Republic Grand Prix.
Just five days ago they were on the first and second step of the podium at Indianapolis and today Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were back in action in Europe. The Czech Republic Grand Prix marks the return to the continent for its traditional mid-August event, and today’s first practice sessions saw the Repsol Honda riders in third and fifth place, respectively –both less than 3 tenths of a second off Friday top man Stefan Bradl.
Good weather allowed a first day of practice without incident, starting with a morning session in which Dani Pedrosa set the second fastest time ‒343 milliseconds off the fastest lap by Jorge Lorenzo. His teammate in Repsol Honda, Marc Marquez, was fourth ‒422 milliseconds off the Yamaha rider.
In the afternoon things developed in a similar fashion, as Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez were the main protagonists of the second session. However, in the final minutes Bradl sneaked in to set the best time of the day, followed by Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Rossi and Marquez. Pedrosa was just one tenth of a second off the German rider’s time and Marquez lapped two tenths slower. On his last flying lap in the second practice session, Marquez was on course for the top spot before encountering traffic, losing his opportunity.
Tomorrow sees the final Free Practice sessions and Qualifying for the Czech Republic Grand Prix.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 1:57.041, 17 laps, 92 km.
FP2 – 1:56.600, 16 laps, 87 km.
“Today was a little more difficult than expected, as I felt more pain than I have in the past few days. I was unable to ride at 100%, but still we were able to have two good sessions. We tried some different setups with the bike and different tyres. Let’s see if tomorrow I feel better and can improve aspects of the bike to lower my time.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:57.120, 18 laps, 97 km.
FP2 – 1:56.733, 17 laps, 92 km.
“I felt really good from the start which is good news! I thought it would take a little more time and that we would be further behind Jorge and Valentino, as they have tested at this circuit recently. In general, the feeling was good but there are still aspects of the setup where we can improve a lot, which will hopefully give us more comfort and in the end more speed. I’m not worried, we know that tomorrow the times will come down, but we must continue working in the same way and focus, because we know that we can perfect the setup.”
