Kent, Espargaró and Lorenzo dominate the WUs at Motorland

The World Motorcycle Championship got underway today at the Motorland Aragón Circuit with the warm-ups of all three categories, finally a completely dry session under sunshine, although the track in Aragón was rather chilly.

The first riders out on track were the Moto3 riders, with the fastest being Danny Kent. The Briton set a lap time of 2:01.790, leaving his main rival Arthur Sissis 0.253s behind, and third-placed Efrén Vázquez 0.260s back. Our best representative was number 7, who finished in the leading trio and is ready for the race.

Behind them came Fenati 4th, Rins 5th, Khairuddin 6th, Folger 7th, Viñales 8th, Ajo 9th and Oliveira 10th. A good warm-up for Rins, who finished ahead, and also for Viñales, who finally sees the sun at moments when he needs to make up ground on Cortese, who was 11th in this warm-up.

The rest of the Spanish riders placed 12th Moncayo, 15th Martín, 16th Márquez, 26th I. Viñales, 28th Guevara, 31st Navarro and 34th Salom, who suffered a crash during the warm-up, as did Antonelli, both without physical consequences in principle.

The next riders out on track were the Moto2 riders, with the fastest being Pol Espargaró who set a very good final lap, with a time of 1:54.390 on his Kalex. The number 40 left his main rival, Marc Márquez, behind, who finished 0.399s off the first rider’s time, so there was maximum excitement between the two. But the third position went to a great Nico Terol, who feels very comfortable at this circuit and is very eager. You can tell that the Suter has improved a lot and that these changes have suited number 18 very well.

Behind them came Luthi 4th, Smith 5th, Iannone 6th, Rabat 7th, Aegerter 8th, Di Meglio 9th and Pons 10th. So good feelings for Tito and Pons in this top 10, now it is time to attack in the race. A bad start for Andreozzi, Torres, Rosell and Colandrea, who all went down, luckily there seem to be no physical consequences for any of them, although Elena’s crash was nasty.

The rest of the Spanish riders placed 12th Simón, 23rd Mariñelarena, 32nd Rosell and 33rd Torres.

Finally, the MotoGP riders went out, who had their first dry training session, so there is a lot of work to do to set up the settings and get the bikes ready for these novel conditions at Motorland. The fastest in this warm-up session was Jorge Lorenzo with a time of 1:49.838, leaving his teammate Ben Spies in second place, 0.018s behind. Number 11 is showing strength on this layout, so watch out for Spies, who could attack.

Third position went to Dani Pedrosa, but without being able to dip below 1:49, although he was in the leading group and with the Yamaha men close by, so once again the favourites did not disappoint. Further back, Dovizioso finished 4th, Crutchlow 5th, Bradl 6th, Hayden 7th, Bautista 8th, Rossi 9th and De Puniet 10th.

Behind the top 10 were Barberá 11th, Rea 12th, Abraham 13th, Espargaró 14th, Pasini 15th, Edwards 16th, Hernández 17th, Ellison 18th, Pirro 19th, Salom 20th and Petrucci 21st. A bad warm-up for Héctor Barberá, as he went down and took a good knock, but luckily it seems without consequences.

Photo | MotoGP Official website