Aleix Espargaró, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were the three protagonists of this first day of MotoGP’s annual visit to Catalonia. It is no secret that the Spanish riders enjoy performing on home soil in front of their fans.
So today three Spanish riders dominated the opening day of the Catalan event. Aleix Espargaró was dominant in much of FP1 only for Marc Marquez to swipe the fastest time on the final lap. In the afternoon the situation was repeated and Marquez took the lead after getting the better of Espargaró, only for the latter to strike back and end the day as the fastest man at his home track.
Despite the prevailing heat the MotoGP riders registered very fast times, and tomorrow the competition is sure to be fierce in qualifying.
POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Eugene Laverty was able to improve in the afternoon by more than six tenths on his morning time. Some data gathered last time out in Italy has helped him gain more maneuverability or corners. By the end of the day’s sessions the Irishman ended up in 19th position.
Eugene Laverty 19th 1’43.351 (40 laps):
“Today we improved a lot from one session to the next, something positive compared to the races in Italy and France, certainly this Friday has been more positive than those. In Mugello we learned how best to turn the bike in certain types of corners and that helped us today in the final sector. Thanks to that this afternoon we managed to improve our feelings and our times. We still have to continue to improve the maneuverability of the front end in some parts of the circuit. In addition, in the afternoon, with increasing temperatures, the rear wheel bounced a lot, so we will try to fix it tomorrow.”