Lots of setup work for Juanfran Guevara at Catalunya

The Catalan Grand Prix –the second Spanish round of the Moto3 season- always generates plenty of interest amongst the lower cylinder class riders.

Especially those who hail from Spain, who want to shine at all costs. However, the top local rider on Friday was third (Viñales). Heat of up to 32ºC in the second session was a dominant factor on the opening day, as riders began with a pace some half a second off the circuit record of 1’51.475.

Herrera and Rodrigo, wildcards for this event, increased the number of bikes on track to 35. 15 thousandths of a second separated the top three of Ajo, Miller and Viñales today, and the timesheets are as tight as expected.

Juanfran Guevara concluded the day in twentieth, 1.4 seconds off the fastest time of the day. He completed 32 laps -16 in each session. The MAPFRE Aspar rider began the day with the same setup that gave him good results at Mugello, but ended the session reslising that modifications were needed to adapt in Catalonia.

The Spaniard worked on corner stability for fast turns, knowing that this will be his biggest issue this weekend.

20th Juanfran Guevara 1.53.343 (32 laps):
“Today we started the day with the same setup we used at Mugello, and on the first lap we noticed that the bike was slightly too high and that this harmed us on the fast corners. The bike behaved in a very nervous way, so for the second session we changed the settings and noticed the improvement right away. Besides varying the height of the bike and the wheelbase, we have also done some tyre testing, as I don’t like the harder compound much. It caused the bike to bounce a lot. At the end of the session we tried to gain a bit of pace and see how we could improve the cornering of the bike. Here in Catalonia you have to get the bike turning in well on the fast corners, so we will continue working on the setup.”

Source: Aspar Media