The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team stuck to their agreed-on strategy on the first day of the Gran Premio d'Italia Oakley. They let Moto2 rookies Manuel Gonzalez and Keminth Kubo put in a lot of laps to gain experience at the technical Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello. They secured 13th and 30th place respectively in the combined Friday timesheets.
Gonzalez is a fan of the Mugello track and he underlined it by positioning himself high up the provisional rankings right from the start of FP1, showing once again that he needs little time to adapt his riding to the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp bike. As the times dropped, the Spaniard pushed even harder to keep up with the experienced Moto2 riders. He continued to improve his pace and set a 1‘53.040s best time on lap 17/17, earning him 16th position.
The rookie sensation continued the positive vibes in the seriously hot afternoon session. The physically demanding conditions didn‘t slow him down at all. He set a 1‘52.814s on lap 4/16, which earned him 8th place in the FP2 rankings and 13th place in the combined timesheets.
Kubo was very excited to start the morning session in Mugello: first of all because he had missed riding his bike whilst sitting out the Spanish and French GPs, and second because he had been looking forward to learning his way around this iconic Italian circuit. He used FP1 to gradually build up speed and finished the session in 30th place with a 1‘56.273s best lap, set on lap 14/14.
The Thai rider had his work cut out for him making a comeback at one of the most challenging tracks in over 30°C weather. But the number-81 rider kept working hard, getting in as many laps as possible. Though he remained 30th in the FP2 and combined Friday rankings, his 1‘55.000s best time, set on lap 5/15, was a massive 1.273s faster than his morning time.
