MotoGP Argentina – Mixed conditions in the opening day

The first day at Termas de Rio Hondo circuit was a difficult one for all the teams and riders of the Grand Prix World Championship. The second round of the season was already going to be an unknown, given the fact that the Argentinian track was resurfaced, but the weather certainly didn’t make things easier for anyone.

The weather predictions said there would be rain, but the wind also made an appearance, and those weather conditions mixed with the new asphalt made it impossible for riders to get the best out of their machines.

For example, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) was the fastest rider on the combined practice times with a lap of 1m39.395s, but he still was far away of the best lap times achieved by a MotoGP machine in Termas de Rio Hondo. The pole position lap record, from Marquez, is a 1m37.683s, a difference that shows how tricky conditions were at the Argentinian track.

The only rider able to get close to the Repsol Honda champion was another Honda rider, in this case from LCR Honda Team. Cal Crutchlow, in a late effort in free practice 2, reached second spot in the time sheet, but was 0.404s off Marquez pace.

Completing an all Honda Top3, Dani Pedrosa, on the second Repsol Honda bike, finished day 1 with the third best time, although Pedrosa is almost a second slower than his teammate.

A nice surprise in this first day of action in Termas de Rio Hondo was the performance of MotoGP rookie Hafizh Syahrin.

For the first time at this track with the MotoGP prototype Yamaha M1 of Monster Yamaha Tech3, Syahrin was most of the time inside the Top 10 in both practice sessions, but couldn’t get a better personal time during free practice 2, so on the combined time sheets the Malaysian star rider is on the 17th spot.

In Moto2 the weather also played an important role, with Italian Mattia Pasini (Italtrans) making the best of what he could and managed to be the fastest on track, beating Portuguese Red Bull KTM rider Miguel Oliveira by a little over a tenth of a second. Third quickest on day one was Francesco Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team VR46).

As for the Malaysian riders competing in Moto2, Zulfahmi Khairuddin (SIC Racing Team) scored the 28th fastest time, closely followed by Khairul Idham Pawi (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) in 29th spot.

In the lower class of Grand Prix World Championship, it was Italian Enea Bastianini (Leopard Racing) who topped the time sheets, while his teammate Lorenzo Dalla Porta completed a perfect start for the weekend for Leopard Racing with second fastest time ahead of Tony Arbolino (Marinelli Snipers Team).

Malaysian Adam Norrodin (Petronas Sprinta Racing) was eight quickest on day one as he kept his morning pace rolling in the afternoon, and Honda Team Asia rider Nakarin Atiratphuvapat suffered a crash on the final lap, however he walked away relatively unscathed – he ended the day in the top 10.