Opening sessions at Aragon see Terol in 3rd and Torres 6th

The Aragon GP weekend kicked off at Motorland on Friday, with the Moto2 class returning after a fortnight off. The riders were still sharp, however, and times were fast on the opening day. Riders like Takaaki Nakagami and Esteve Rabat have come to the fore at recent races, and it was Nakagami who took the top spot on Day 1 with a 1’54.325 lap late in the afternoon session.

Nico Terol joined the duo at the head of the timesheets, on a day in which title challengers Scott Redding and Pol Espargaró were momentarily out of the picture.

Nico Terol is a big fan of Motorland, and enjoys riding at the circuit. The Spaniard was on good form in the morning session, on the occasion of his 25th birthday. He set the quickest Moto2 time in FP1, and in the afternoon continued to fight at the front. He was third overall, and puts much of the credit down to the test undertaken by MAPFRE Aspar at Alcarrás earlier this week.

Also benefitting from that test was Jordi Torres. He was fourth in the opening practice session, with a solid pace almost immediately. Unfortunately, the afternoon saw a crash for Torres on his third lap out, as he fell at Turn 2. Spending the rest of the session in the pits, he was unable to ride any further laps in the session. The cause of his slip is being investigated by his team, as it appears to have come about through the engine cutting out.

3rd Nico Terol 1.54.564 (34 laps):
“We come to this weekend off the back of a couple of races where things have been more difficult than normal. We haven’t thrown in the towel, however, and are taking a logical approach to things. I felt very comfortable on the bike today, and I am very happy with our pace. I was convinced that I would feel good here, at a track that I love. The test at Alcarrás played a big part in this, as we found a setup there that gave us a lot of grip. We need to work hard still, but this has taken us a step forward. I am convinced that the improvement is going to help us a lot in the latter part of the season. We reached our goal of getting back in front today. I hope to continue like this for the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow we will work on polishing aspects of the front end, but in general we have started fantastically.”

6th Jordi Torres 1.54.934 (21 laps):
“This morning we began with a setup that worked well, and we were clear about things thanks to the test at the start of the week. We got on the pace quickly and that allowed us to put in some hot laps. We tested out a few things with the chassis in the afternoon, looking to get a bit more rigidity, and the three laps with it were positive. The negative is that I only did three laps before crashing. I leaned the bike over and the engine cut out on Turn 2, and I couldn’t pick it back up. We lost a stint due to that, but at least the chassis and swingarm stayed intact.”

Source: Aspar Media