Photo: motogp.com
Aleix Espargaro remains the fastest rider of the Friday practice at the Barcelona MotoGP circuit, ahead of the 7th round of the 2014 championship. He was using the same Open class softer compound tires he had in the Free Practice 1 this morning, but was unable to better his time in FP2. His best lap remains the 1’41.672 in FP1. As track temperatures reached a whopping 55 degrees Celsius (131 F) during the MotoGP FP2, the elder of the Espargaro brothers joined the ranks of almost half the riders who were unable to perform better in the second practice session of the weekend.
The following 4 riders have however, posted faster lap times in FP2, with Yamaha Tech3 Englishman Bradley Smith being the second fastest rider of the day, improving his time by more than a second, and remaining 0.451s behind Espargaro. He was followed by the reigning champion Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Pol Espargaro for the top 5, while behind them lined up Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Yonny Hernandez, Andrea Iannone and Dani Pedrosa.
However, the combined practice times of the day show a very interesting intermediate rank, with Smith in the second position, closely followed by Bradl at 0.007s, Marquez and Lorenzo, again with a minuscule 0.008s gap between them. It’s hard to tell whether the satellite teams and the Open class leader Aleix Espargaro will be able to maintain such a high pace and keep Marquez at bay, but one thing is sure: tomorrow morning, the FP3 will be a cutthroat one.
So far, two of Dani Pedrosa’s records at this track remain untouched. He has the best lap and best pole under his name, with 1’40.893 in 2013, while the 1’42.358 2008 circuit record lap is most likely to be broken.
However, the combined practice times of the day show a very interesting intermediate rank, with Smith in the second position, closely followed by Bradl at 0.007s, Marquez and Lorenzo, again with a minuscule 0.008s gap between them. It’s hard to tell whether the satellite teams and the Open class leader Aleix Espargaro will be able to maintain such a high pace and keep Marquez at bay, but one thing is sure: tomorrow morning, the FP3 will be a cutthroat one.
So far, two of Dani Pedrosa’s records at this track remain untouched. He has the best lap and best pole under his name, with 1’40.893 in 2013, while the 1’42.358 2008 circuit record lap is most likely to be broken.
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