Photo courtesy of Suzuki Racing
Team Ecstar Suzuki MotoGP’s Aleix Espargaro has continued his impressive early season form by claiming the fastest time in both FP1 and FP2 at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit for the 2015 Argentinean MotoGP.
Threatening skies greeted the MotoGP field for the opening Free Practice session, with most satellite and factory riders electing to use only one set of tires in an effort to scrub in the racing line. A brief shower at the beginning of FP2 caused a small delay in proceedings, with many riders frantically throwing new tires on their machines at the end of the session in an effort to post a competitive time ahead of the all-important FP3 tomorrow.
Espargaro ended the session 0.535s ahead of the factory Ducati Team GP15 of Andrea Iannone, who just edged reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez into third place. Marquez ended the session 0.560s off his compatriot Espargaro, in what was the first time a Suzuki has been seen at the top of the timesheets since the 2011 Valencia MotoGP in which Alvaro Bautista set the fastest time in FP2.
“I like this track a lot and I think it is suitable for our machine,” Espargaro said. “Last year I had a good performance but this year is going even better; early this morning I got back my feeling and could push hard from the very beginning. Even if the track conditions are still slippery, the handling capabilities of my GSX-RR gave me much confidence: only in one corner do we still have chattering problems but we can be very effective in all the rest of the circuit.”
Top British rider and first of the satellite bikes in FP2 in Argentina was Cal Crutchlow on the CWM LCR Honda RC213V in fourth place, 0.627s off Espargaro; he was followed by Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, the three riders separated by less than one tenth of a second.
Rounding out the top 10 in FP2 was Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro from Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda), from Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) and Pramac Ducati’s Yonny Hernandez.
Nicky Hayden on the Aspar Honda finished the session 14th with a 1:40.522, 1.7s off Espargaro and top Open Class Honda.
2015 Argentina MotoGP
Day One Results
1. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) – 1:38.776
2. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) – 1:39.311
3. Marc Marquez (Honda) – 1:39.336
4. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) – 1:39.403
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) – 1:39.434
6. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) – 1:39.463
7. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) – 1:39.648
8. Scott Redding (Honda) – 1:39.892
9. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) – 1:39.947
10. Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) – 1:40.088
