Espargaró and De Puniet the best CRTs on Friday at Laguna Seca

The Power Electronics Aspar riders had two free practice sessions at the Laguna Seca Circuit that were somewhat complicated, especially the first one, in which both ART MotoGP bikes had electronic problems. Despite this, they closed the first day of free practice as the best CRTs on track.

Aleix Espargaró was the best of the CRTs, although his teammate was right behind him, just 35 thousandths away, so they continue to dominate this MotoGP sub-championship. Finally, Espargaró was able to reduce his lap times considerably from the morning session to the afternoon one, taking giant steps forward. You can tell the novelties seen at the Mugello test are having their effects.

Finally, Aleix and Randy, eleventh and twelfth respectively, have once again set the pace, finishing ahead of two MotoGP riders this time. We’ll see tomorrow for FP3 and especially qualifying.

Statements from 11th-placed Aleix Espargaró 1:23.835 (39 laps):

This is a completely new circuit for us. We had no reference data, and this morning the electronics didn’t work as we expected. In the afternoon we recovered, and the situation improved noticeably.

I’m happy with how this first day went; tomorrow we’ll try to keep improving. In Italy we thought we would suffer a lot because it’s a very fast and long circuit, but instead we were close to the factory riders. Here it’s the opposite. It’s a slow, short track and we are far off on the times. We need to improve power in the first three gears.

Today we fitted the same chassis we tested on Monday after the Italian GP, so we’ll see if we can get the maximum performance out of it. I really like the corkscrew; personally, the change in gradient after the main straight impresses me more.

Statements from 12th-placed Randy De Puniet 1:23.870 (31 laps):

Our arrival at Laguna Seca was a bit rocky. We had electronics issues that prevented us from working in the first session.

Fortunately we solved them so we could approach the second one with complete calm. The results weren’t perfect, but we worked against the clock to improve engine braking performance. I still don’t have full confidence in the bike, although I’m convinced that tomorrow we’ll be back at one hundred percent, because we have a wide margin for improvement.

Despite this morning’s setbacks, I finish the day with an optimistic attitude, since we’ve fixed everything that came up. Tomorrow we’ll keep working on the electronics and the gearbox. This circuit is very different from any we’ve ridden before, and we need to adapt the bike.

Source | Power Electronics Aspar