Good start for Faubel at Catalunya, Moncayo only 15th but confident of potential

Good weather at least! The Grand Prix paddock can hardly remember the last time they were able to complete two free practice sessions in dry conditions but this morning the Moto3 riders took to the track in Barcelona at the start of a day of uninterrupted sunshine and warm temperatures. Maverick Viñales took advantage to set the pace the first session but in the afternoon it was Louis Rossi, surprise winner of the last race, who stepped up the pace. The top five riders are separated by a second, as are the next twelve.

Héctor Faubel wasn’t awarded any points for leading the race at Le Mans two weeks ago but it certainly seems to have helped his confidence. Today the BANKIA Aspar veteran began work with a new Kalex chassis, reporting good front grip and better flexibility already. Héctor gradually improved his pace on the new machine and finished the day seventh fastest, 1.1 seconds off the day’s best. His team-mate Alberto Moncayo was eighth fastest this morning and after some set-up experiments that backfired this afternoon he was unable to improve and dropped to fifteenth.

7th Héctor Faubel 1.53.766 (33 laps): “I am very happy with the new material we have received for this race. The new chassis worked well from the firsts session and we took another step forward this afternoon. We are a little over a second off the top but with a positive feeling for the bike and another day tomorrow to work on the set-up. We have started the weekend on the right foot, with a more responsive machine that is improving with every change. This is positive because it means we have more room to improve. The front is solid and the bike sits well so I am very happy with it. We’ll keep working on the chassis set-up tomorrow and I hope we can improve more before qualifying.”

15th Alberto Moncayo 1.54.422 (31 laps): “The day started well and we had a good feeling for the bike this morning, using the base set-up from Le Mans. In the afternoon we tried a lot of different things with the set-up, with some alterations to the swingarm, but they weren’t effective so we need to go back a step tomorrow. The engine wasn’t running as well as we would like either so that’s another thing that held us back. We are not worried though and I am confident we can qualify well tomorrow.”

Source: Aspar Team