Forward Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro put his Open class soft tyre to good use in the opening MotoGP free practice session at Jerez this morning, topping the timesheets by more than three tenths over compatriot Jorge Lorenzo in second.
The Spaniard is already faster than the lap record after only 45 minutes on track with a 1’39.357 on his 16th lap compared to the Movistar Yamaha man’s 1’39.714 with a best lap from Marc Marquez good enough for third place and half a second off the pace.
Espargaro said yesterday that he thought he might be able to use the soft tyre in Sunday’s race but that was before he saw the forecast temperatures this weekend and he may now have to adjust his expectations.
Marquez’ Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was only 0.011s behind but ran into traffic on his final faatest lap after setting two outright fastest sector while Valentino Rossi, in fifth, ended eight-tenths slower than Espargaro with a 1’40.167 on his tenth lap of 19.
In terms of early pace, Espargaro managed three laps in the 1’39s while Lorenzo did the same on the softest tyre he is allowed but that is one grade harder than Open class riders can use. Marquez put in five 1’39s out of 20 laps in total while Pedrosa only did one but his consistency in the 1’40s is outstanding with 12 out of 20.
Alvaro Bautista, who got another public kicking from his team boss Fausto Gresini before this race, ended in sixth place and 1.2 seconds off the pace, just ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Stefan Bradl. Yonny Hernandez was a surprise in ninth with Bradley Smith rounding out the top ten.
Crocked Cal Crutchlow ended more than two seconds in arrears and down in 18th place. The Briton is struggling with his injured finger and will evaluate whether to continue with the weekend’s activities this evening.
Scott Redding was one place further back with Michael Laverty ending in 24th.
