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Marquez and Pedrosa start fast in Barcelona

Repsol Honda Team riders complete the first day of Catalan Grand Prix in second andthird place, respectively, as well as leading the first practice session.

Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa made a good start at the Circuit de Barcelona­Catalunya on Friday, on the

first day of practice for the seventh round of the MotoGP season. The Repsol Honda Team riders topped the

first free practice session, then finished the day with Marquez in second place and Pedrosa third on the

combined timesheets – headed by Aleix Espargaro.

The first day in Barcelona provided evidence of the evolution of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, who

maintained a good pace and solid times in both practice sessions. First and second, respectively, in FP1, both

improved by a few tenths before the end of the day to stop the clock at 1:41.443 – Marc Marquez – and

1:41.789 – Dani Pedrosa.

sees a further 75 minutes of practice time, before qualifying to decide grid.

Tomorrow Sunday’s

Marc Marquez 2nd 1:41.443 35 laps 165 km

"I'm happy because I felt pretty good on the bike. We are working with a focus onthe second part of the race, because at this track the tyres degrade a lot, but it’sthe same for everyone. We did some tests and it seems that we have solved a fewof the problems we have had, but we must continue with this because I still don’tfeel quite right. However, I think we have definitely taken a step forward. That is theimportant thing: Improving and getting increasingly closer to the top time. Anyway,we still have work to do to prepare the second part of the race when tyres dropdown."

PERFIL AUDIO

Dani Pedrosa 3rd 1:41.789 40 laps 189 km

"Thankfully the track dried after yesterday’s rain and we made the most of this towork a lot with the tyres. The asphalt was not in ideal condition but we tried somechanges to the setup for the rear; we will continue to see if we canimprove both on the entry and exit of corners. Today we put on both the hard tyreand the soft compound and, although the grip was not perfect, both are very similarand there is not much difference, this will be key for the race. I also tested twodifferent swing arms, and we will decide which one we will use after checkingcarefully the data, as both have pluses and minuses."

PERFIL AUDIO

SEE IMAGES

MotoGP ­ Catalan GP. 1st & 2nd FP 06/12/15

1 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 1:41.158

2 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda 1:41.443 +0.285

3 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 1:41.789 +0.631

tomorrow

4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1:41.823 +0.665

5 Maverick Viñales Suzuki 1:41.922 +0.764

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