MotoGP – Brno Free Practice 1 – Uphill day for Simoncelli and Melandri

After the short summer break, the engines of MotoGP and Team San Carlo Honda Gresini were rekindled on the Brno circuit. Unfortunately for Simoncelli the start was difficult due to a harmless slip which stopped him for almost half the session. However, when he returned to the track he had a positive reaction and improved constantly. A light drizzle then definitively compromised the last seven minutes of this afternoon's free practice. Melandri, however, is struggling with the set-up of his Honda RC212V. He is unable to find the feeling and have good cornering and has to exploit his main driving characteristics. Everything is postponed until tomorrow in the hope that the information gathered will allow him to improve his current position.

Marco Simoncelli (8th 1´ 58″ 840): “Slip aside, I'm quite happy. Unfortunately today's session started uphill, I lost control of the front over a pothole and fell. After the days of vacation I perhaps left a little too cheerful. When I got back on track I didn't do too badly, clocking 1' 58"840 alone in the only session I managed to do because then it started raining. The bike doesn't feel great yet but I'm confident for tomorrow. The rain wasn't very heavy but turning wouldn't have made much sense with the risk of another crash. With the electronics I feel better than in the Laguna race. During the holidays, my team and I studied and now I'm starting to reap the benefits. ”

Marco Melandri (14th 1´ 59″ 510): “We knew it was going to be a bad shift because we made some pretty radical changes. We struggled a lot but I never imagined so much. Now we hope to analyze the data collected in the best possible way in order to work and find the right solutions. In fact we have to work on the suspensions trying to find the feeling again and get back to being fast. My problem with this bike has always been cornering, lacking my strong side and which I am unable to exploit this year. I hope to find a good solution tomorrow. ”

Fausto Gresini “It's a shame about Simoncelli's initial crash because he started off well straight away. In any case, once he got back on track he was fast again. The only regret is that he lost almost half a practice session, slowing down all the work and this is certainly the most negative aspect. We will try to make up for lost time tomorrow by thinking positively. Melandri, however, still has problems with the traction control and is struggling to ride the bike as he would like. We are working on the set-up and I'm sure that when we find it we will get good results."

Gresini Racing team