MotoGP – Aragon Free Practice – Good start for Simoncelli and Melandri

Double positive result for the riders of Team San Carlo Honda Gresini. In this morning's practice, on a dry track, Marco Simoncelli was fast and consistent. At “Super Sic” the track immediately clicked, resulting in an excellent fifth time, tenth in the afternoon but with wide margins for improvement which bodes well for tomorrow's practice and for the race. Fifth fastest time on a wet track for Marco Melandri, who was third fastest until a few minutes before the end of this afternoon's practice. Good performances for both Team San Carlo Honda Gresini riders which bode well for this weekend. An extra round of testing which gave us greater confidence and made us work with greater serenity.

Marco Simoncelli (5th 1' 51" 768 FP1 10th 2' 04" 151) “The track is very beautiful and it is definitely more beautiful today with the MotoGP than yesterday when I rode with the scooter. I'm quite happy because I was reasonably fast in the dry and I didn't do badly in the wet. It was definitely positive and nice to do an extra session of testing because in this way Friday became an interesting and pleasant day again. Before, with a practice session only in the afternoon, I didn't like it at all. We started from the reference set-up identified in Misano and discovered that it is a good basis on which to work."

Marco Melandri (11th 1´ 52″ 321/FP1 5th 2´ 03″ 146/FP2) “Fortunately we returned to do four rounds of testing and in this way, this morning, we lapped on a dry track. The track is very beautiful but also difficult because there are many blind corners, lots of braking where you can't see the curve and with changes in gradient. In the wet the "grip" is not bad even if in some corners the water drainage is not perfect and there is a greater consistency of the wet. Overall, however, the track isn't bad, it's a nice structure and the only negative thing, in my opinion, is the too much asphalt outside the track and too much synthetic grass. ”

Fausto Gresini “This Grand Prix started much better on both a dry and wet track. Both riders defended themselves well and did a good job and therefore we are more confident for tomorrow. The team and the guys all worked well and therefore we started with a much better base than in Misano. Let's hope that all this is a good omen and I would be very pleased to finally get a good result."

Gresini Racing team