The opening day of the Grand Prix of Aragon was brought to an abrupt end this afternoon as a power failure in the local sub-station cut all electricity to the track. As a result there will be no second free practice, instead an extended third session tomorrow morning will compensate. Despite the shortened day reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo wrapped up in good form, finishing second fastest, 0.449 seconds behind Dani Pedrosa in first. Team mate Ben Spies was also quick to find a good direction for his YZR-M1. The Texan rose to third whilst using the softer tyres, only dropping in the time sheets to 11th as the rest of the field switched to faster rubber. The results leave the team optimistic for a strong performance from both riders tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position 2nd - Time 1.50.730 - Laps 16
“This morning we started in a good direction, finishing second just four tenths slower than Dani who was top. It’s too early to make too many conclusions because the track is too dirty so tomorrow will be the real day to see who is fastest. We are very disappointed to not be able to make the second start, we have so many things we wanted to try but at least we have an extra half an hour tomorrow to take profit from.”
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MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa Fastest in First Practice at Aragon
MotoGP: Aragon Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Ben Spies
Position 11th - Time 1.51.911 - Laps 17
“This morning was actually quite a good session for us; we were up to third position and then we opted not to change tyres and work on the set up. It seems everyone else tried the harder tyre in the end which worked a lot better so we’re looking forward to using that. We picked which set up we are going to move forward on so the end result of the session was definitely not what the bike is capable of. Tomorrow should be good. I’m annoyed about this afternoon, it’s no one persons fault but it’s frustrating.”
Wilco Zeelenberg - Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager
“The first practice went ok, everybody struggled a bit on grip but second place in the end wasn’t bad. We were looking forward to free practice two because the track changes a lot after some usage by the other classes. We were never able to ride due to the electricity problem so we’re looking forward to tomorrow morning to see what we can do.”
Massimo Meregalli - Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director
“We only had one practice and we didn’t want to use two sets of tyres for Ben in the first session so we stuck with one. The bike set up wasn’t so bad but the plan was to try it this afternoon with the right tyres. We’ve lost a day so we’ll see what happens tomorrow, it’s going to be a really busy day. Jorge started well, finishing second was a good beginning, we look forward to seeing what he can do tomorrow.”
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