The MotoGP™ paddock arrived at the 4.8 km Termas de Rio Hondo for the first day of practice at the Gran Premio de la República Argentina to be greeted by some rather ominous grey clouds overhead.
Despite the threat of rain, it never materialised and with a track temperature of 25 degrees, conditions improved throughout the day.
It is the second time that the MotoGP™ World Championship has visited the Termas de Rio Hondo, with Marc Marquez winning the inaugural race last season. There were two MotoGP™ Free Practice sessions on Friday with FP3 scheduled for tomorrow ahead of Qualifying, and the race on Sunday.
FP1 saw Suzuki head a MotoGP™ session for the first time since Alvaro Bautista set fastest time in FP2 at Valencia in 2011, as Aleix Espargaro finished on top of the timesheets in a morning that threw up some surprising results. The reasons for this though were simple, as during the session most Factory and Satellite riders used just one set of tyres in an attempt to clean the dust off the racing line and increase grip-levels, and didn’t even attempt to set a flying lap.
Therefore grip levels had improved considerably during FP2 at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, leading to all of the riders setting improved lap times in the afternoon, although ten minutes into FP2 the rain that had threatened all day finally arrived. Luckily it was a short shower that only caused a brief delay to proceedings.
After the rain, it was the usual frantic end to the session as riders went out on a fresh set of tyres to attempt a flying lap. Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro repeated his feat from the morning, proving that his pace from FP1 was no fluke and finished on top of the timesheets with a 1’38.776.
Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.535s) was in 2nd ahead of Marc Marquez (+0.560s) on the Repsol Honda and CWM LCR’s Cal Crutchlow (+0.627s), who was once again impressed during practice.
The second GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.658s) finished in 5th just ahead of the Movistar Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo (+0.687s) who completed the top six. The provisional third row consists of Pol Espargaro in 7th, Scott Redding, and Valentino Rossi who finished the day over a second behind the leader.
The Movistar Yamaha’s of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi seemed to struggle with the track conditions as they tried out the extra hard tyre. Both riders explained that Suzuki’s softer tyre option is what had given them an advantage, and that they were not far behind the rest of the riders.
Aspar Team MotoGP’s Nicky Hayden was the leading Open class rider in 14th place, 1.7s off the pace of Espargaro.
Click here for the combined results from MotoGP™ FP1 FP2, FP3 is scheduled to start at 09:55 local time in Argentina on Saturday.