Rain and cold during first day at Misano

The weather conditions at the track were very different from those at the last Grand Prix held at the circuit, and this led to the Repsol Honda Team riders, like the rest of the MotoGP grid, not being able to improve on their times of a month ago in any of the sessions held.

Marc Márquez finished the first Free Practice, held under cloudy skies but with the track practically dry, in second position. In the second session of the day, with heavy rain that lasted more than half of FP2, Márquez achieved a best time of 1:42.833 that placed him in fourteenth position.

His teammate, Pol Espargaró, experienced problems that led him to finish FP1 fifteenth. In the afternoon, the Repsol Honda Team rider suffered a small crash that did not allow him to improve his times. He finished the day with a best lap of 1:43.470, for 19th.

Rider Statements

#MM93

“The day started quite well and in the morning we had good speed, in the afternoon the session was a bit more complicated. I wasn’t able to find the perfect lap in the afternoon but even so, it seems our level in the wet is not as high as it normally is. I don’t think our true position is 14th in the wet but we need to understand what is happening more. It was important to make the most of today because the forecast for tomorrow and also Sunday remains uncertain.”

#POL44

“Today was a little bit more difficult than we expected, also for all the Honda riders, the bike was missing some grip but we were able to make some improvements. When I crashed I was probably feeling the best I felt all day, my time was improving so it’s a shame to fall but we learned some things with it. At the end, we need to look to tomorrow and see what we can do. If it’s dry we will see what we can achieve because we had a really good test here. If it’s still wet, it gives us a chance to improve our current feeling.”