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The MotorLand Aragón Circuit today hosted the first two Free Practice sessions for the Aragón Grand Prix, the thirteenth round of the season. The action started in dry conditions, and the forecast is for the weather to remain the same for the whole weekend.
Marc Márquez set his best time in the morning, at the beginning of the session. In the afternoon he suffered a small crash that forced him to use his second bike. The Repsol Honda Team rider was the only competitor not to go quicker in FP2 than FP1, but his 1:48.048 gave him eighth overall and a provisional spot in Q2.
Pol Espargaró experienced his first day at the Aragonese track with the Honda RC213V. He completed the first session of the day inside the Top 10, setting good times. In the afternoon, he improved his lap time from the morning but was 0.080 outside the Top 10. The Spaniard was eleventh with a 1:48.166, and will need to up the pace on Saturday to get into Q2.
Rider statements
“We had a perfect plan; a new tyre in FP1 and then work on the race in FP2 but with the crash we changed our plan a bit. It did give us a chance to test the hard rear so it hasn’t impacted our race weekend a lot. For sure when I fell I was frustrated because I was feeling under control. Yes, I was behind Álex with the slip stream and braking slightly later but I knew I was too fast and I tried to go wide, but then I hit the dirty first part of the track and fell. That’s why I was frustrated with the fall. I only pushed for a couple of laps today to save some energy, but so far when I push for race pace the lap time has been coming.”
“Everyone is very close here today, from the top five down to me in 11th is only 0.1s so there’s nothing between us. One small mistake and you go from P4 to P11 which makes our laps in FP3 really important. We need to get a lap with no mistakes because spending just a tiny amount of time off throttle compared to another rider can see you in Q1 instead of Q2. But it’s been a good day, we were focusing on the race today and preparing for Qualifying so there’s speed to come. I’m happy with how it has gone so far and we’ve had a productive day working for the future.”