Folger, Márquez and Nakagami the best in FP1 at Mugello

The World Motorcycle Championship opened Friday’s action with free practice sessions at the Mugello Circuit, where the first to get a feel for the wet track were the riders of the small category; without a doubt, rain, humidity and cold remain the protagonists.

The first to go out were the Moto3 riders, setting times far removed from normal ones. Specifically, Jonas Folger was the fastest in this FP1 of the small category with a lap time of 2:09.450, while last season the fastest time in this session was 1:53, so the track conditions were clearly difficult.

Behind the German, Maverick Viñales finished a little over two tenths off the leader, with Locatelli 3rd, Rins 4th, Miller 5th, Fenati 6th, Oliveira 7th, Salom 8th, Isaac Viñales 9th, Khairuddin 10th. The rest of our riders placed Márquez 13th, Carrasco 23rd, Guevara 28th, and Efrén Vázquez did not take to the track, as the 7 preferred to avoid risks given his physical condition.

The next to go out were the MotoGP riders, with Marc Márquez the fastest in complex conditions, as the track was quite wet, but the top-class riders opted in the final minutes to fit slicks and push so that this time would count, since remember that now all FP sessions count towards the battle for pole position.

Márquez was the fastest, setting a lap time of 1:54.797, almost four tenths ahead of the second-placed rider. Moreover, the 93 could not improve further due to a crash on the grass area in the final moments. Without a doubt, the Repsol rider Honda was among the four fantastic ones who made the most of these conditions. Second place went to Pirro on the Ducati laboratory, while the rest of the top 10 were Bradl 3rd, Abraham 4th, Hernández 5th, Smith 6th, Hayden 7th, Pedrosa 8th, Crutchlow 9th and Spies 10th.

The rest of the Spanish riders placed Bautista 11th, Espargaró 12th, Lorenzo 14th and Barberá 20th. Difficult conditions in this FP1. Regarding crashes, we saw those of Pesek, Petrucci and Dovi, along with some off-track excursions.

To close the first free practice session at the Mugello circuit, the Moto2 riders took to the track, with Takaaki Nakagami the fastest, setting a lap time of 1:54.877 in the final seconds of the session, so the Japanese rider is once again very strong. Behind him, completing the top 10, were Simeon 2nd, Espargaró 3rd, Redding 4th, Rabat 5th, De Angelis 6th, Krummenacher 7th, Di Meglio 8th, Luthi 9th and Aegerter 10th.

Meanwhile, the rest of our riders finished in the following positions in a difficult session, with Terol 15th, Pons 17th, Simón 19th, Torres 20th, Cardús 23rd, Moncayo 25th and Elías 29th.

Now on to FP2 very soon.

Photo | MotoGP official website