Team HRC make positive inroads on day 1 at Aragón

“Overall, I’m quite happy with the first day here. We already knew that our pace at this track was competitive, something we noted during the recent test. Not over the flying lap, where I expect some challenges tomorrow, but in terms of race pace, so I feel confident there. This morning I could push hard, lapped on my own and felt comfortable all session long. This afternoon the track temperature increased by around ten degrees and the feeling changed a bit, especially at the front. I cannot say I’m a fan of the new front spec, I felt a little on the limit and took a couple of risks before ultimately crashing. Just a small crash, and I’m totally fine, so overall I’m very happy, as I’ve said. We are top five, and it’s been a while since we started a racing weekend this well. We’ll try and fight at the front as far as we can, but we shouldn’t forget that today is only Friday. This morning was cold and windy, and the track was a bit dirty, with many riders already improving their pace this afternoon. The track will continue to improve run by run. So we need to work well in FP3 and qualifying and then perhaps we’ll have a chance to stay in the front group or close to it during the first race. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

“It’s been a solid first day, the best start to a Friday we’ve had in a long time, so that’s positive. The test we completed here some weeks ago has definitely helped, but it’s also this kind of layout that suits our bike particularly well. So we’re happy and pace is already quite good, but we need to keep working to make another little step. I feel we are going in the right direction and, with Iker also going very fast, we will have more data to analyze that will help us for tomorrow. The goal is to fight at the front, and what better place to try and do that than at home.”