A good days work by Maverick Viñales & Ana Carrasco in Montmeló

The heat influenced the first free practice sessions at the Circuit of Catalunya today.

It took the teams much time to find the right set up and the right tyres, but Maverick Viñales and Team Calvo did a great job, and even though there’s more room for improvement, the Catalan rider was always amongst the fastest. Tomorrow’s goal will be to start from the front row, even though the competition at home will be very fierce. Viñales finished 4th overall after the two sessions, in the afternoon he was 3rd with 1 tenth difference to the fastest rider.

Hi team mate Ana Carrasco and her team have also been working on the set up of her KTM and from morning to afternoon she took a big step forward. Ana will try to further improve in tomorrow’s qualifying to be able to start from further up the grid.

#25 Maverick Viñales – 1.52.339 – 4th place / @maverickmack25
It’s all very tight. We’ve had many problems with the set up and we have to work very hard. For tomorrow we have to solve many of those problems we’re having with the chassis, but we’ve found many positive things that might work. The heat also influences things a lot, we’ve got a lot of grip and we have to take care that this doesn’t hinder us. The most important is that, as usual, we’re preparing everything for the race and with the support of KTM and my team I hope to be able to improve tomorrow.

#22 Ana Carrasco – 1.54.360 – 24th place / @AnaCarrasco_22
I’m satisfied. During the first session we didn’t make the change that’s necessary for this track and we went a bit slow. But in the afternoon we improved the bike’s set up a lot, and even though a couple of things still need tweaking, I believe we can solve these issues tomorrow and ride faster. The aim is to achieve a good grid position, because we always start from far back and the fight to gain positions is always a struggle. Therefore I hope I can position myself within the top 20, in which case I should be able to fight for points in the race.

Pablo Nieto (Team Director) / @pablonieto22
I think today’s been a positive day, the heat played an important role because it complicates the tyre choice for the race. But as usual we mainly focus on the bike set up for the race. In tomorrow’s qualifying it’s important to get Maverick in the top 3. Ana is a lot closer to where she wants to be at this circuit. Tomorrow we hope she can take another step forward to secure herself a starting position in the top 20.

Source: Team Calvo