Aleix Espargaró a démontré que la nouvelle GSX-RR pouvait être compétitive vendredi à Termas de Río Hondo.
Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar) a signé le meilleur de chacune des deux séances d’essais de vendredi au Grand Prix Red Bull de la République Argentine et était ainsi le premier pilote Suzuki à dominer une séance MotoGP™ depuis Álvaro Bautista à Valence en 2011. Le matin, l’Espagnol menait un classement assez surprenant qui s’expliquait par le fait que les pilotes sur prototypes Factory n’avaient utilisé qu’un seul jeu de pneus pour toute la première séance. Face à une piste sale sur laquelle les gommes s'usaient rapidement, les pilotes ont en effet préféré préserver un maximum de pneus pour la suite du week-end, quitte à sacrifier leurs positions sur le feuille de temps.
L’adhérence était nettement meilleure l’après-midi pour la seconde séance d’essais, au cours de laquelle les temps au tour ont nettement progressé. Quelques gouttes de pluie sont venues semer le doute un instant mais la piste est restée sèche et les pilotes ont ainsi eu l’opportunité de s’attaquer au chrono.
Aleix Espargaró a alors surpris en se maintenant à la première position avec un chrono de 1’38.776 qui lui conférait une demi-seconde d’avance sur Andrea Iannone (Ducati) et Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), qui avait remporté l’épreuve argentine l’an dernier lors de la première venue du MotoGP™ à Termas de Río Hondo.
Impressionnant lors des essais libres à Austin, Cal Crutchlow (CWM LCR Honda) a de nouveau affiché un bon rythme et s’est classé quatrième.
Andrea Doviziso (Ducati) a pris la cinquième position devant Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) et Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), le leader du classement général, qui finissait neuvième à un peu plus d’une seconde du temps de référence.
Quatorzième, Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) a été le pilote Open le plus rapide et était à 1.7s du leader tandis que les Français Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) et Loris Baz (Athinà Forward Racing) ont respectivement fini cette première journée aux vingt-troisième et vingt-quatrième positions.
Cliquez ici pour accéder au classement combiné.
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro showed how competitive the new GSX-RR will be in Argentina by topping the first day of Practice.
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.
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 the fastest time in FP2 at Valencia in 2011, as Aleix Espargaro finished on top of the timesheets in a morning that threw up somesurprising results. The reasons for this seemed 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.
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. Therefore surely normal service would be resumed during the afternoon and Marquez would be back at the top of the timesheets? Not quite!
Surprisingly, it was Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro who repeated his feat from the morning, proving that his pace from FP1 was no fluke as he finished on top of the timesheets with a 1’38.776, making use of the softer tyre option available to the team.
This time was made even more impressive by the fact that he managed to beat Dani Pedrosa’s Circuit Record from the 2014 race in the process, although he was still over a second off Marquez’s overall lap record, and completed a day to remember for the returning Factory team: “I’m happy, even though its just the first day. The feeling I have with this track is special and layout of the track is really good for our bike. I think we can still improve with the hard front tyre, which we will try tomorrow.”
Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.535s) finished in 2nd on the Ducati Team GP15 as they once again demonstrated that the competitiveness of the new Desmosedici at a different circuit: “I am very happy with the performance, but I want to improve the feeling with the bike.”
The Italian discussed having to pull off track in FP1 with smoke pouring from his bike: “I had a problem, I understand their was oil coming down, so I turned off the engine.” His team later confirmed that they had replaced the engine in the bike with a new one.
Marc Marquez (+0.560s) on the Repsol Honda had no real answer to the pace of the Suzuki of Espargaro, explaining afterwards that he felt like he was sliding around a lot and revealing: “I think the key to this weekend will be understanding the evolution of the grip level of the track, and adapting the setup to the changes. But the important thing is that we were able to go out and ride, and we are already at a good level."
CWM LCR’s Cal Crutchlow (+0.627s) once again impressed during practice, ending the day in 4th place, and will be hoping to turn his pace into points come the race on Sunday.
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. Lorenzo said afterwards he had found a good setup on the harder tyre: “I have a good feeling for the hard tyre so we need to find a good set up for the soft too.” The double MotoGP™ World Champion feels it will be closer as the weekend progresses: “Apart from Alex Espargaro with the extra soft tyre we are very close to the rest so let‘s see for tomorrow.”
The provisional third row consists of Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro in 7th, Scott Redding on the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Honda in 8th, and Valentino Rossi who finished the day over a second behind the leader down in 9th.
Click here for the combined results from MotoGP™ FP1 & FP2, FP3 is scheduled to start at 09:55 local time in Argentina on Saturday.
