Two busy sessions opened the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend for Joan Mir and Luca Marini as they worked to adapt the Honda RC213V to the Algarve circuit.
Overnight showers left gloomy conditions and a dirty circuit as the MotoGP World Championship prepared for Friday action at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. Running during Free Practice 1 would see track conditions steadily improve with more running, but clouds remained lingering overhead.
Joan Mir ended the day in 19th, half a second back on the cut off for the top ten with a best lap of 1’39.119. After a promising start in Qatar and good memories from Portugal last year, the #36 was hoping for more but believes improved track conditions will help on Saturday.
A frustrated Luca Marini is determined to right the wrongs of Friday tomorrow, the Italian suffering a fall on his final lap of the afternoon between turns seven and eight. Unharmed, Marini was unable to improve on his 1’39.781 and ended the day in 22nd.
Now a busy evening of work awaits the Repsol Honda Team as they look to put today’s data into action and make overnight improvements. Both riders and team and adamant of improvements to come for Qualifying and the Sprint.