Nico Terol and Jordi Torres happy with progress on opening day at Sepang

In the typically tight Moto2 class there was a dominant force on track today as Esteve Rabat managed to pull seven tenths on the rest of the field after the opening two free practice sessions.

Behind him the lap times were much closer with the likes of Thomas Luthi, Scott Redding, Pol Espargaró, Takaaki Nakagami, Alex De Angelis, Dominique Aegerter and Nico Terol all hoping they can be challenging the Spanird for top spot tomorrow.

Considering the pace of Rabat today it is likely that Espargaró’s pole record of 2’06.962 could fall tomorrow.

Nico Terol had a consistent if unspectacular day on track, lapping sixth fastest this morning and eighth fastest this afternoon.

After taking a dominant victory in the last round at Aragón, the MAPFRE Aspar rider has some issues to sort out with the set-up of his bike but was generally satisfied with his feeling and fastest lap of 2’08.688.

His team-mate Jordi Torres knew that he would struggle down the long straights here because of his size but the rookie has done a solid job on the opening day and after finishing up fifteenth fastest he will also be looking for improvements tomorrow – like Terol, principally with the turning of his bike.

8th Nico Terol 2.08.688 (33 laps):
“I am happy because we set a good pace from the start. I didn’t manage to put a perfect lap together at the end of the session to get down to the low 2’08s and need to get a better feeling around certain parts of the track where we are lacking grip over the bumps. We also need to get the bike turning better, which is strange because at Aragón it was working perfectly and here we’re struggling to get it stopped with the same level of stability under braking. There is no need to panic because we have made a decent start and we have enough information to get the bike working perfectly tomorrow. We have been consistent today so if we can improve the set-up tomorrow we should make up some positions.”

15th Jordi Torres 2.09.079 (34 laps):
“The feeling today was good and I think we have started the weekend well, apart from needing a little more feedback from the front end. We have tried a few different tyres but we need some more information to work out what we need to get the bike turning better. We know which is the best tyre now but need to improve the feeling with the front end. This is a long and demanding circuit and you have to be very clear about your lines otherwise you can lose time.”

Source: Aspar Media