A strong sixth place opened the San Marino GP weekend for Pol Espargaro, team-mate Marc Marquez, less than a tenth behind in ninth place.
It was anything but idyllic beach conditions on the opening day of MotoGP training at the San Marino GP when semi-regular rain showers hit the paddock during the two MotoGP training sessions. Free practice 1 began with a dry run and enabled the drivers to get at least a foretaste of the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in better conditions. The best times of the day came from that first half of FP1 when the track was dry.
From a handful of dry minutes at the start of the day, Pol Espargaro managed to take the top Honda titles and set the sixth fastest time of the day. With his 1’33.019 he finished 0.353s behind Viñales’ best time of the day and Espargaro was able to present himself well in the wet second half of the session. In the dry, Espargaro is confident with the speed he and the team found in FP1. With unchanged and still wet conditions in Free Practice 2, Espargaro wasted no time on the track to continue learning the Honda RC213V in all conditions and to improve over the course of the afternoon.
In typical modern MotoGP fashion, there was little choice between the top ten and Marc Marquez finished the day ninth fastest, but within half a second of the best time in the dry. Marquez made the most of the available track time and returned to the track at the end of Free Practice 1 when it was raining to understand the conditions. The rain returned in Free Practice 2 and with the entire session being in the wet, Marquez was able to improve his feel and challenge the futon runners. With the fifth fastest time of the FP2, the # 93 still has the feeling that something is missing to close the gap forwards in the wet.
Wildcard Stefan Bradl convinced again on his return to the Grand Prix paddock, the German set the eighth fastest time of the day. His 1’33.047 minutes was just 0.023 seconds behind the time of MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo.
The forecasts also remain mixed for the Saturday action. The action begins at 09:55 local time with the 3rd free practice. Should it stay dry, the session will offer the Repsol Honda Team pair one last chance to defend their position in the combined top-ten.