Photography by Gold & Goose
Less than a month removed from his spectacular high-side crash at Le Mans, which resulted in surgery to repair a ligament in his right thumb, Espargaro, the older of the two MotoGP racing Espargaro brothers, has bounced back with a strong performance In MotoGP practice Friday at Catalunya.
Local boy Aleix Espargaro gave both Catalunya and Suzuki fans a major reason to cheer. The 25-year-old Spaniard, who lives not far from the Circuit de Catalunya, obviously felt right at home. Using the softer options rear tire available to Open class teams, he pushed his Suzuki to the fastest time of FP2 with a blistering 1:41.158, nearly 3-10ths of a second faster than Honda’s Marc Marquez (1:41.443). Dani Pedrosa had a good outing in FP2 as well, clocking a 1:41.749, good for third fastest on his Honda.
It marks another highlight for Suzuki, who returned to MotoGP competition this year for the first time since 2011.
Pedrosa owns the best lap record at Catalunya with a 1:40.893 set in 2013.
A total of six riders made it into the 41s, including Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso (1:41.823), Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales (1:41.922) and Andrea Iannone (1:41.938), also Ducati mounted.
Perhaps the surprise of Friday was the fact that the Yamaha factory riders were down the charts. Jorge Lorenzo finished seventh fastest with a time of 1:42.034, while teammate and world championship points leader Valentino Rossi only managed only 11th fastest (1:42.367).
American Nicky Hayden was 17th aboard his Aspar Honda, the former world champ clocking a 1:43.110.
If the sub-par form for the Yamahas continue, this weekend could be a time for the other riders to make up ground on Rossi and Lorenzo, who are well ahead in the world championship standings after six of 18 rounds. Rossi leads 118 to 112 over teammate Lorenzo. Dovizioso is third with 83 points. Defending champ Marquez is fifth with 69 points.
Marc Marquez is the defending winner of this race. He shared the podium a year ago with Rossi and Pedrosa.
MotpGP FP2 Results from Catalunya, Spain – June 12, 2015
Pos.-Num. -Rider -Nation -Team -Bike -Km/h-Time -Gap 1st/Prev
1 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 335.9 1’41.158
2 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 344.0 1’41.443 0.285 / 0.285
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 343.6 1’41.789 0.631 / 0.346
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 341.0 1’41.823 0.665 / 0.034
5 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 335.6 1’41.922 0.764 / 0.099
6 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 343.2 1’41.938 0.780 / 0.016
7 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 337.0 1’42.034 0.876 / 0.096
8 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR CWM LCR Honda Honda 340.8 1’42.044 0.886 / 0.010
9 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 338.9 1’42.313 1.155 / 0.269
10 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 339.8 1’42.354 1.196 / 0.041
11 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 337.1 1’42.367 1.209 / 0.013
12 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 343.5 1’42.417 1.259 / 0.050
13 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 338.9 1’42.645 1.487 / 0.228
14 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 334.9 1’42.697 1.539 / 0.052
15 76 Loris BAZ FRA Athinà Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 328.1 1’42.968 1.810 / 0.271
16 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 336.7 1’42.995 1.837 / 0.027
17 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 329.9 1’43.110 1.952 / 0.115
18 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 334.7 1’43.351 2.193 / 0.241
19 43 Jack MILLER AUS CWM LCR Honda Honda 332.7 1’43.369 2.211 / 0.018
20 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 332.8 1’43.463 2.305 / 0.094
21 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 330.5 1’43.562 2.404 / 0.099
22 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 336.4 1’43.760 2.602 / 0.198
23 6 Stefan BRADL GER Athinà Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 336.5 1’43.851 2.693 / 0.091
24 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 326.8 1’44.614 3.456 / 0.763
25 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 331.0 1’45.323 4.165 / 0.709
