Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp made their first kilometres at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in the two Moto2 Practice sessions today. After a rushed P1, Manuel Gonzalez was pushing for a provisional Q2-spot in P2 and ended the day in 14th place in the combined timesheets. Kohta Nozane was determined to pick up the right intermediate class riding techniques. He ended the day in 29th position in the combined Practice results.
The morning session didn‘t go to plan for Gonzalez. Eight minutes into P1, he had a slow-speed crash in Turn 14. Though the Spaniard was quickly back on his feet, he lost valuable time. He started his second run with still about half of the session remaining. At the time, he was 27th in the live timing. He quickly clocked a 1‘37.879s on lap 9/13 that put him in 22nd place.
The number-18 rider had to make up for lost time in the afternoon, working on preventing tyre degradation for Sunday's race. Despite riding with old tyres, he worked himself up to 11th in the P2 results with a 1‘37.005s, set on lap 14/19. The faster afternoon time moved Manugasss to 14th place in the combined results, earning him a provisional place in Q2.
Nozane aimed to use P1 to build onto the confidence he gained on the bike in the Catalan GP race last Sunday. The Japanese rider has experience at the Misano track but found it challenging to adapt to the Moto2 lines. He focused on getting into a good rhythm and set a 1‘39.577s on lap 16/19 to finish the session in 31st position.
The Moto2 rookie continued working with the crew in the afternoon to find a time improvement. He showed his willingness to put in the effort by doing another 17 laps to make sure he was getting more familiar with the technical aspects of this track for Moto2 bikes. He clocked a 1‘38.326s on lap 17/17 that saw him taking 29th place in the P2 and combined Practice timesheets.
