Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp kicked off the Grand Premio MotoGP de España with two boiling hot practice sessions. Manuel Gonzalez was on the pace early on in P1 but found himself in 15th place after a crash. He maintained the position in the combined times. Soichiro Minamimoto was one of only two riders to make a time improvement in P2. He ended the day in 30th place.
Gonzalez started his Jerez mission strong in the morning, but a crash halted his progress early on. Still, he featured inside the top 14 for most of the 40 minutes of track time with a 1‘42.430s set on lap 8/8. However, a late flurry of activity pushed him to 15th place in the final minutes.
Manugasss was strong in the opening stages of P2 again and settled into eighth place with his third lap, clocking a 1‘42.825s. Like most of the Moto2 rider field, his best afternoon time was not an improvement on his P1 time. He ended the session in 9th position and stayed in 15th place in the combined P1+P2 order.
Minamimoto headed out together with teammate Gonzalez in P1 to continue his learning process in the Moto2 class. The Japanese rider gradually improved his times and wrapped up the morning with a 1‘45.371s best time, set on lap 19/19, leaving him 30th in the classification.
The rookie made steps early on in P2, dropping into the 1‘44s by only his second lap in the hot afternoon. At the time he was the only rider to have improved on his morning result, only to be joined by just a single other rider later on in the session. Minamimoto posted another 1‘44.931s on lap 11/18, however, it didn‘t improve his ranking. He remained 30th in the combined P1+P2 timesheets.
