Local hero Espargaró sets the pace for CRT riders on first day

The temperatures rose on and off the track in MotoGP today as sunshine finally welcomed the paddock to a circuit for the opening free practice sessions, which saw an entertaining duel between home favourites Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo gatecrashed by the unsympathetic Casey Stoner this morning. The Australian for some reason struggled to match his early pace this afternoon, giving the likes of Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and Alvaro Bautista the opportunity to take their turn at the top. Even though Lorenzo came through to stamp his authority at the end it was a good day for the Spanish crowd, with Bautista finishing second and POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Aleix Espargaró setting the pace amongst the CRT bikes.

Espargaró was the fastest rider on the new breed MotoGP machines this afternoon after his team-mate Randy De Puniet had taken that honour this morning. As the early summer heat grew in intensity this afternoon there was frantic work on both sides of the garage as the riders tested a variety of settings and tyres, finishing the day with the Spaniard in thirteenth place and the Frenchman fourteenth, both of them just over 2.5 seconds off Lorenzo’s pace – not a huge gap considering the length of the main straight at this circuit.

13th Aleix Espargaró 1.44.738 (35 laps): “I am very happy to have started the weekend well. It is always as stressful as it is good fun for me here because I have all my family and friends around. We changed a lot of things on the bike from the morning to the afternoon but I have been having fun out there all day. I think we have found the right way forward for the rest of the weekend and it looks like my team-mate has too so it would be nice to see us battling to be the top CRT again in qualifying tomorrow. It is going to be very hot here this weekend and we’ll have to take that into account for the race because tyre choice could be crucial in the later laps.”

Source: Aspar Team