Spies on top in rain affected Aragon practice

Round 14: Aragon Grand Prix – Free Practice One and Two

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies was quickest on a rain-riddled Friday at Aragon, with the American rider setting a lap time of 2’00.219 in FP2 to finish the day 0.066 seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.

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• Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Extra-Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard (Asymmetric)
• Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Soft (Main), Hard (Alternative)
• Weather: FP1 – Wet. Ambient 17-17°C; Track 18-18°C (Bridgestone measurement)
• FP2 – Wet. Ambient 18-18°C; Track 19-20°C (Bridgestone measurement)

Spies’ benchmark time came towards the end of FP2 and capped off a solid start for the Yamaha Factory Racing team at Aragon with Jorge Lorenzo posting the third best time of the day. In similar circumstances to the last race at Misano, FP1 was run in variable track conditions on tarmac that was neither fully wet nor fully dry. Only nine riders elected to go out in the morning session, with the remaining riders hoping for more consistent conditions in FP2. Steady rainfall leading up to second free practice meant a fully wet track greeted riders for the afternoon session, and all riders ventured out on track in search of a wet setup.

All riders used the soft compound wet tyre today which is the main wet tyre for this weekend, with no riders electing to fit the alternative hard option in today’s cool conditions. The current weather forecast indicates that rain is a strong possibility for tomorrow’s FP3 and Qualifying Practice sessions, while the race could also be run in damp conditions with rain predicted for Sunday morning.

Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“Free Practice Two provided consistent track conditions for riders and teams to start work on a wet setup as this morning’s in-between conditions meant many riders chose not to go out of their box. Even when the rain stopped falling in this afternoon, there was still a lot of standing water on the track so the wet tyres stayed in their ideal operating window for the duration of the session. Overall, tyre performance in the cool and wet conditions at Aragon today was positive with riders reporting good grip levels and warm-up performance.”

source: bridgestonemotorsport.com, bsmotorsport.com