Andrea Iannone was fastest in the Friday free practices at the Circuit of the Americas.
Iannone said: “I have a good feeling at this circuit and a good feeling with the bike. The conditions are difficult because the track is dirty, but it’s the same for everybody. I’m really happy because we worked in a good way today, and the most important thing is to continue like this tomorrow and remain focused. For sure the target for us is to stay at the top during qualifying because overtaking is difficult so it’s better to start at the front for the race. It’s hard to recover from the back, and harder to show our potential. We hope to improve tomorrow, and I believe that anything is possible because I feel positive and ready to fight for the top.”
Andrea Iannone was fastest in the Friday free practices at the Circuit of the Americas
Marc Marquez was second in the standings.
“I’m quite happy with how things are going because I felt strong from the beginning, and we worked for the race. Most importantly, I did my lap time with a hard rear tyre. They also say it may rain tomorrow, so it’s positive to be up in second place. Our pace is already good, but there are a few things we want to improve because I don’t yet feel 100%. This afternoon I had a small crash when I tried another setup, so we need to keep working, also because there are some riders looking strong, in particular, Vinales. Today we were able to try several tyres but we must also understand more on that side. Anyway, let’s wait and see; there’s so much that remains between now and Sunday”, Marquez explained.
That’s a wrap from #MotoGP on day one – here’s the times and those riders heading through to Q2 ⏱ pic.twitter.com/4RqTBsJTtG
— MotoGP™??? (@MotoGP) April 20, 2018
Maverick Viñales used FP1 to reproduce his strong form at COTA from last year. Feeling encouraged by his strong start in FP1, the Spaniard gave another strong performance during the second 45-minute session. Having bettered his bike, he went on to secure third place in the final minute, 0.264s from the front.
“FP2 went quite well and I‘m quite happy overall, even considering we didn‘t try the soft at the end because, in the beginning, I didn‘t feel good on the soft on the first laps. I still think we could have had good potential on the soft. So, I think we still have a margin to improve. We started better than we did on the previous two tracks. I hope we can go faster and have a bit more stable bike for tomorrow”, he said.
