Friday Aragon MotoGP Practice 2014
Practice began Friday for round 14 of the 2014 MotoGP Championship at Motorland Aragon in Spain.
Leading the way throughout both free practice sessions was Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian posted a best time of 1:48.285 around the 3.155-mile circuit containing 17 corners during the morning free practice session.
Andrea Dovizioso says, “I did a really great lap at the end! I am very happy with the time I set, especially because I didn’t do a perfect lap. We still have to work on pace, because as always here at Aragón the rear tires drop off a lot in performance after just a few laps. I can confirm that the GP14.2 is narrower and also more comfortable, and so it goes better from that point of view, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
When the day ended, the reigning MotoGP Champion – Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez – followed by a mere 0.043 of a second. As Marquez looks to win a 12th round out of 18, his teammate Dani Pedrosa followed by 0.406 of a second.
In fourth place overall Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing Ducati) was around half a second behind his future teammate Dovizioso, as he also enjoyed riding the new GP14.2 following a test on the machine earlier this week at Mugello for both riders.
Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) was just ahead of his brother Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) as the Spanish pair ended the day fifth and sixth respectively.
Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) completed the top ten as the factory Yamaha riders failed to match the pace of Dovizioso and the factory Hondas. Lorenzo and Rossi trailed Dovizioso by 0.684s and 1.027s respectively.
It was a difficult day for Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) who was forced to abandon his new Ducati in FP1 as it caught fire and then only made it out on track again towards the end of FP2, to set the 17th fastest time overall.