Bautista up with the best on opening day at Mugello

2017-06-04 22:29
The Italian Grand Prix started with track temperatures of up to 54 degrees at Mugello, where Cal Crutchlow topped the time sheets in MotoGP free practice. The Brit was one of five Independent riders in the top ten with a best lap of 1,47.365, edging out home Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.029 seconds. Ducati also had five riders in the top ten, with wildcard Michele Pirro fourth fastest, Héctor Barberá eighth, Pull&Bear Aspar rider Álvaro Bautista in ninth and Jorge Lorenzo completing the group. Just four tenths of a second cover Crutchlow to Lorenzo at the end of an opening day to what promises to be an exciting weekend at Mugello.

The sixth round of the season started strongly for the Pull&Bear Aspar Team, with Álvaro Bautista ninth fastest after clocking a 1'47.728 that sees him provisionally through to Q2, with the final and decisive third free practice still to come tomorrow morning. So far Bautista is satisfied with the work he and his team have completed on a first day that saw them establish a strong race pace with some consistent lap times over the two sessions. His team-mate Karel Abraham ended the first day in Italy in 21st position overall but just 1.5 seconds shy of the leader. The Czech rider is in positive mood after the opening two sessions here, having taken several steps forward with his set-up, which should help improve his pace on new tyres tomorrow.

9th Álvaro Bautista 1:47.728 (36 laps):“We did a good job today. We had a little problem with one of the bikes this morning and had to go with the other one, but I felt comfortable from the start. We tried to improve our feeling and the set-up of the bike, especially in terms of corner exit on the throttle, because this morning I was running a little wide, and in the afternoon we improved this. We wanted to get the bike turning and handling better but with that we lost a little stability and braking power, which is very important at this circuit, so in the end we reverted to our previous set-up. I spent virtually the whole day with the medium rear tyre and in the end we tried the soft to see what feeling it gave, but to be honest I couldn't feel the usual extra grip. In general we were quite consistent throughout, our race pace is good and I feel comfortable with the bike.”

21st Karel Abraham 1:48.925 (32 laps): “After Barcelona I think this was a really positive day for us. In the morning I still didn't feel really great with the front, it wasn't as bad as Barcelona but it wasn't great. We worked really hard on it and after making a big step in FP1 we made an even bigger step in FP2, where we managed a 1'49.0 on tyres that already had almost full race distance on them. That is a decent lap time. We tried a couple of other things that also improved the bike slightly and then at the end of the session we tried with the soft tyres. We thought we might find another half a second and even though we improved, unfortunately it wasn't as much as we expected. Anyway, I think it was a really good day - I feel much better on the bike again and as a team we made some really good progress. Hopefully we will get more comfortable with the new tyres tomorrow and take another step.”

Source: AsparTeam

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