The first day of free practices at Jerez de la Frontera came to an end with a superb 5th place gained by Danilo Petrucci as Scott Redding finished very close to the Top 10 with good feeling in sight of tomorrow’s FP3.
After the heavy rain fell during the FP1 – ended with Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding in 8th and 11th respectively – the rider from Terni worked hard on race pace before returning on track setting the fifth quickest lap-time (1’40.378), only 87 milliseconds from Jorge Lorenzo.
Scott finished his first day of activity with much confidence that comes from the constancy on race pace. The English rider worked on the set up of his Ducati Desmosedici Gp but didn’t manage to get the most out of the time attack, ended up with the time of 1’40,639, one step away from to the Top 10 (only 66 milliseconds) and just two tenths of a second behind his team-mate.
5th – Danilo Petrucci – 1’40.378
“It was a strange day. The track has not completely dried after the morning’s rain and in the afternoon the circuit was still a bit wet. As a result it was very risky to push hard. I had to find the right confidence, but in the end we did a good job. We still have room for improvements but meanwhile we with the others in front and tomorrow we have so many solutions to try. That is why I am very pleased”.
11th – Scott Redding – 1’40.639
“This morning we only lapped to find a little feeling in wet conditions and things did not go wrong. In the afternoon I struggled a bit especially in corner speed and this did not allow me to be as fast as I would like. I honestly feared it could go worse that’s why I’m pretty happy. We also worked a bit with the tires and the data are good”.
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