Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp‘s Manuel Gonzalez had been looking forward to trying the notoriously technical Circuit of The Americas again and showed great pace in the dry P1 session. After a wet P2 session, he completed the first day of riding in Austin, Texas, in 17th place. Soichiro Minamimoto used today‘s two 40-minute practice sessions to find a solid base setting. He ended the day in 30th place in the combined standings but with a lot of experience gained.
Gonzalez was aiming to make a strong start at the COTA track in the morning, as rain was predicted for the afternoon. He soon featured inside the top 10 and got to work trying to amend his bike‘s settings. Pushing harder at the end of the session, he set a 2‘11.275s on lap 14/15, that put him in 13th place in the P1 results.
Rain did come, right when the Moto2 field was due to start P2. The Spaniard waited a little while to assess the situation before venturing out. Manugasss improved on his best morning time in the final stages of the session. A 2‘10.856s, set on lap 10/11, put him in 15th position in the P2 results and 17th place in the combined timesheets.
Minamimoto used the P1 session to get to know the circuit. Once out on track with the other riders, he got a better understanding of the ideal lines and improved. He concluded FP1 with a best time of 2‘18.700s on lap 13/15, that would have put him in 30th place.
The afternoon session posed an even bigger challenge for the Japanese rider. He had to gain further experience at COTA whilst the track conditions were constantly changing. The stop-start nature of the rain didn‘t hold the number-2 rider back from getting the mileage in though, and he completed more laps than any other Moto2 rider. Despite the tricky conditions, the rookie improved his time by over 2s to a 2‘16.352s on lap 16/16 but stayed in 30th place. However, in all classes a rider must achieve a time within 105% of the time recorded by the fastest rider in the same session, hence Minamimoto was given an NC result.
