Espargaro, Rabat and Pons making gradual improvements in Texas
The first day of practice at the Circuit of the Americas in the heart of Texas has not been easy for the Tuenti HP 40 riders. Pol Espargaró, used to being among the first positions for many races now, found himself in the second half of the time sheets, until he found a better setting of the bike and finished the practice in 7th position.
Tito Rabat also couldn’t avoid a big amount of work on the bike setting and getting to know the track and ended the day in 9th place.
Teammate Axel Pons didn’t post a fast lap, but looking at his partial laptimes he’s still optimistic.
Getting to know a new track well is essenttial, but in this case the cold conditions in the morning also set back the riders with a distinct lack of grip. A case in point is the laptime of Scott Redding who improved by almost 6.5 seconds between the first and second session. Pol, Tito and Axel each improved more than three seconds.
7. POL ESPARGARÓ, 2.13.159 “At a completely new track and starting without any references I must admit that I struggled a little. We have to work on the gear change, the suspension and the geometry to find a setting with which I can go fast. I think at the end of the practice we found a way and now we have the tools to improve and be where we want to be, fighting for the top spot each time we go out on track.”
9. TITO RABAT, 2.13.288 “It’s been a really bad day of practice, both because of the problems with the setting of the bike and because of the crash caused by two riders in the first minutes of the afternoon practice and in the end I was stuck in the box and couldn’t improve my laptimes any further. I have very little grip and this translates to a lack of confidence when getting the bike into the corners. And at a long and technical track like this one every little problem costs you a lot of time. Despite all this I am confident and I think tomorrow we can be much further up.”
20. AXEL PONS, 2.15.002 “Despite the position I’m not worried about this first day of practice at such a long and difficult circuit. Today I couldn’t go for one fast lap, for this reason or another I didn’t find a good moment to push. I’m sure that tomorrow we’ll be much better, because the setting of the bike is good and I really like the track.”
Source: Pons Racing Press Release
