UNFORTUNATE START IN JEREZ
Stefan Bradl hampered by an early crash during Friday afternoon’s FP2.
Under scorching conditions at the famous Circuito de Jerez, the European opener of the MotoGP™ World Series got underway today for the team Athinà Forward Racing and its rider Stefan Bradl in southern Spain. After a positive free practice session this morning, which the Bavarian ended up in eleventh position of the time sheet, conditions were changed massively with much higher temperature for the second session of the day. Bradl suffered an early fall, fortunately without any consequences, but he had to switch his bike. Mostly due to the changed conditions but also for the circumstances that the bike wasn’t setup properly, Bradl couldn’t improve his lap time after FP1 but he is confident to come back on Saturday and fight for the top position in the Open class.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Athinà Forward Racing, Yamaha Forward) FP1: 11. – 1´40.037 (17/18) / FP2: 20. – 1´40.825 (11/13):
“After a positive start into the weekend we experienced once again a difficult session this afternoon. I crashed in my out lap and this affected our schedule heavily. I felt immediately there is something strange because there was less grip on the rear and as soon I started to push, I crashed. We will analyse all data to understand what happened in order to improve but we lost that much valuable time this afternoon. I continued the session with the second bike which of course had a different setup as we planned to try different things. Track temperature between this morning and during the afternoon has risen significantly and this made our work even more demanding.”
Combined Free Practice Times FP1/FP2:
1 Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´39.174 (FP1)
2 Aleix ESPARGARO / SPA / Team SUZUKI ECSTAR / Suzuki / 1´39.223 +0.049 (FP1)
3 Marc MARQUEZ / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´39.428 +0.254 (FP1)
13 Stefan BRADL / GER / Athiná Forward Racing / Yamaha Forward / 1´40.037 +0.863 (FP1)