Espargaro on fire at hot Jerez

Marc Marquez was the pacesetter in MotoGP™ FP2 at Jerez from Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso, but Espargaro was Friday’s fastest rider overall.

Repsol Honda’s World Champion Marquez – who is participating in his 100th Grand Prix – led the way in the later practice at the Gran Premio bwin de España with a 1:39.757, though neither he nor his rivals were able to match Espargaro’s 1:39.357 morning best.

The Spaniard found a good feeling with his Forward Yamaha bike in FP1 and he was able to ride fast from the beginning, setting the best time of the day on an extra soft rear tire.

In the afternoon, NGM Forward Racing’s Espargaro was second quickest, trailing Marquez by 0.216s as the track temperature in the south of Spain rose to 53°C. He struggled somewhat with the soft tire as the track was slippery, but despite this he was able to set the second fastest lap time of 1:39.973.

“This morning we had good pace and the time was really quick immediately, but in the afternoon it was so hot and the feeling was like riding on ice,” Espargaro said. “It felt very slippery but even so with a race tire we felt quite good and the pace was not bad.”

Regarding tire options Espargaro added, “We need to work because in the race it will be very hot too and on the front we are right on the limit. The hard tire is too hard and the medium tire is too soft so we need to find the balance. My fast time came with an extra soft rear but it only made 0.3s of difference and it was pushing the front too much so there is no way I’ll use it for the race.

“The most important thing is that we have a good pace with the hard tire and that we lapped with the full tank. We will keep on working in preparation of the race. It’s great to close the first day on top but my priority is to get a good result in the race and a podium is my target as well as my dream.”

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo ended the day in second overall with a best lap of 1:39.714, 0.357s from first.

Teammate Valentino Rossi was sixth with a 1:40.125 lap, less than four tenths from Lorenzo. The major challenge for both riders proved to be a lack of rear grip so the team will now work to make improvements for both set ups ahead of Saturday’s third free practice session.

Lorenzo and Rossi also tested a new chassis for their YZR-M1 to improve the bike’s stability under braking. Positive results were obtained, giving Yamaha’s Japanese engineers a clear direction to continue development.

“The track changed so much from the morning to the afternoon, it was much more slippery and we had to try the different rear tire,” Lorenzo explained. “Like in Qatar it gave us the same problems with less grip and the bike then feels nervous. We are much closer than before though and I think we can close the gap.”

Marquez ranked third overall for the day.

“Today was a positive first day at a track where I had a lot of difficulty last year,” the defending MotoGP World Champion said. “It seems as if this year we are at the same level as the faster riders like Dani, Lorenzo and Rossi right from the start, and this is obviously important.

“With that accomplished, we have also tried to work on things, but it was much easier to set a fast lap and pace this morning, than when the temperatures rose this afternoon. I think that everyone had grip issues, due to the track temperatures reaching 50 degrees. Tomorrow, we will try to take another step forward and work towards qualifying and the race.”

The third best rider in FP2 was Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), who was 0.271s behind Marquez.

Completing the afternoon top 10 were Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar), while there were crashes for Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar), Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) – though none were seriously hurt.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) returned to action in 15th on the timesheet but was able to complete 16 laps in FP2 despite his hand injury.

Xavier Simeon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) was the top man in Moto2™ FP2 at the Gran Premio bwin de España, with Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) second, Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) third and Esteve Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team) fastest overall on Friday.

A lap of 1:43.752 meant Simeon was just 0.088s faster than Cortese in second, while Cortese’s fellow Kalex rider Takaaki Nakagami was a 0.239s behind the FP2 leader.

However high track temperatures meant that none of the top 11 riders improved their FP1 times. Rabat led the way on combined times with a 1:43.486s from the cooler morning session.

Rabat continued his strong practice form in fourth and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert) was fifth, both riders involved in FP2 incidents with Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), resulting in some heated gestures.

The Moto3™ FP2 session saw ambient temperature hit 31°C and track temperature reach 48°C in Jerez, as Efren Vazquez (SAXOPRINT RTG) led the way from Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing).

Vazquez has made a good start to 2014 and he was 0.074s ahead of Argentina race winner Fenati in this practice run, with a best time of 1:47.725. Oliveira trailed by 0.17s in third.

The frontrunning FP2 pace did not match that of FP1 with the day’s fastest to overall riders being Calvo Team’s Isaac Viñales (1:47.388) and Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Marquez (1:47.699).

The FP2 top five was completed by championship leader Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and the aforementioned Marquez.

MotoGP Friday Practice Combined Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

–From motogp.com

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