Oliveira, Iannone and Hayden the best in FP1 at Motorland

The World Motorcycle Championship got underway at the Motorland Aragón Grand Prix, where the first riders out on track for the free practice sessions were those of Moto3, in complicated conditions, since even though the rain did not make an appearance the track was quite wet, so a difficult situation for all the riders.

The Moto3 riders went out very carefully onto the Motorland Aragón circuit, without risking crashes or scares, but the track was undoubtedly not in a joking mood, the asphalt was very wet, so the lap times were quite high compared to last season, which was 1.59.

Miguel Oliveira was one of the protagonists of this first free practice session, setting a 2.11.415, followed by Salom in 2nd and Folger in 3rd, all with 4 minutes left before the end of the session, but we could not see any more action, as a rider crashed at turn 7-sacacorchos and left oil on the track, causing numerous crashes in that area and the red flag.

So, with 4 minutes to go, a red flag and many crashes, as well as a wet track, therefore a complicated start for all the Moto3 riders, who saw the Race Direction end the session without those final minutes. The definitive top 10 was completed by Oliveira 1st, Salom 2nd, Folger 3rd, Cortese 4th, Kent 5th, Khairuddin 6th, Binder 7th, Rins 8th, Navarro 9th and M.Viñales 10th. Meanwhile, the Spanish riders closed this FP1 with Márquez 11th, Vázquez 12th, Martín 19th, Moncayo 20th, Guevara 32nd and I.Viñales 34th.

For the MotoGP riders it was a session without much action on the circuit, as almost none of the favourite riders went out on track, with only Dani Pedrosa going out for a lap to check the condition of the track, and then returning to the box. The Ducati men also went out at Motorland, dominating the free practice sessions.

The CRT riders made more use of the FP1 session, with David Salom, Aleix Espargaró, Danilo Petrucci, Yonny Hernández and Colin Edwards going out. The best time was set by Nicky Hayden with a time of 2.04.890, followed by Rossi 0.860s behind and Espargaró 2.488s behind.

The remaining positions were completed with Petrucci 4th, Barberá 5th, Salom 6th, Edwards 7th, Hernández 8th and Abraham 9th.

The Moto2 riders had a complicated, mixed session, with a track that was medium-dry-wet, and then completely wet from the rain that fell in the final part of the first free practice session. Without doubt the most interesting moment came at the end, when several riders began setting wet-weather times, literally flying in these conditions and posting good times in the rain.

Many scares for riders, although no serious crashes and with work done in these conditions. Excitement in the final part, with Pol Espargaró the fastest in a superlap, but that time was later cancelled because he had cut the circuit, so Andrea Iannone ended up as the fastest with a time of 2.07.981.

Behind him, completing the top 10 were Rea 2nd, 0.411s behind Iannone, and Luthi 3rd, 0.770s behind the Italian; the top 10 was completed by De Angelis 4th, Zarco 5th, Simón 6th, Márquez 7th, Simeon 8th, West 9th and Corti 10th.

The remaining Spanish riders were placed 12th Torres, 15th Terol, 17th Espargaró, 18th Rabat, 22nd Mariñelarena, 26th Pons and 31st Rosell.

See you at FP2.

Photo | MotoGP Official website