Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli have been able to enjoy two sessions on track at Circuit de Jerez – Angel Nieto today, for the first time since pre-season testing in Qatar. The pair took to their Yamaha YZR-M1 machines for two 90-minutes sessions round the 4.4km long Spanish circuit, although the afternoon session was disrupted by a red flag period.
Quartararo spent the majority of the day adapting to the bike and understanding how the circuit reacts to the intense temperatures that the Jerez area is currently experiencing. Fabio finished the morning session fifth with a 1min 38.312secs lap time. After the red flag period in the second MotoGP session, Quartararo focused on improving settings further. The quickest of the afternoon laps, which was a time of 1min 37.911secs, was enough to propel himself into second in the combined standings.
Team-mate Morbidelli worked on tweaking the set-up from the Qatar pre-season test to work round the Jerez circuit. The Italian set good times in the first session, finishing 9th with a 1min 38.733 lap. Franco looked set to improve upon this further in the final ten minutes of the afternoon session, but a small crash in the last corner prevented him from achieving his full potential. Franco ended the day with a fastest time of 1min 38.646secs, which placed him 12th in the overall times.
The first GP of the year for Fabio and Franco will see them take to the track at 0955 CEST/1555 MYT on Friday for FP1, with Sunday’s race set to take place at 1400 CEST/2000 MYT.
