Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini started the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya finishing 8th and 13th respectively in the combined practice times.
During the first free practice, Bastianini and Marini were able to work on the set-up of the bike to get a good balance that is so important and necessary at this track.
For the second free practice, both riders were able to set their best laps of the day. Bastianini stopped the clock at 1:39.977, a time that puts him in Q2 positions. Marini, who suffered a minor crash in the early stages of the session, set a time of 1:40.094.
Tomorrow the action will return to the Catalan track for the third and fourth free practice sessions before qualifying for the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya.
“I am quite happy with the first day. We started off on the right foot in FP1 and I immediately found a good feeling. This afternoon we were able to work a little bit with the tires, trying to understand the tire compound and the tire life. I felt comfortable with both and it won’t be easy to decide for the race. On my first fast lap I went off the track and on my second one I made some mistakes. Nevertheless, I’m eighth, but with a margin, so I think we can make a step forward tomorrow.”
“This track is great fun to ride a MotoGP bike, although today’s conditions were really difficult in terms of grip. We struggled a bit, but we were also able to try some new solutions in terms of set-up and overall, I’m happy with the day. We need to make a step forward on the fast laps, we have room for improvement, and we will use FP3 to try something else. There are some places on the track where I can’t do what I want to do.”
