The Pramac Ducati team once again have a hard weekend’s work ahead of them as Aleix Espargaro and Mika Kallio finish the first day in 15th and 16th position respectively.

Espargaro, the faster of the two, was 2 seconds off the fastest time that was set by Valentino Rossi.

Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“During today’s free practice we worked on both bikes to try some settings that we will use tomorrow during qualifying session. We worked on the tyres trying both compounds. In particular, we noticed that the first setting we have try on Mika’s bike was not ideal because it didn’t allowed him to enter with the right speed through the corners, once pitted in we had try a different suspension set up, the work undertaken had a good response but not as we expected. We then made a further modify which allowed Mika to turn on a low 1′.51. The good response we had with the last setting on both bikes bodes us well for tomorrow’s second free practice, where we will try to reduce the gap we had from the first rider and find the right setting that will allows us to compete for a good position on the starting grid. ”

Aleix Espargarò – Pramac Racing Team – 15th best time in 1’50 .158
“I’m partially happy with how things went today, I had some problems with my forearm that did not allow me to push hard as I wanted. Certainly the result and the two seconds of gap from the first is not exciting, but we’ve got to work a lot and find the right setup that will allow us to gain a good starting grid position tomorrow for the Sunday’s Grand Prix. I have never race on this circuit with a MotoGP bike, and for this reason that during tomorrow second free practice session I’ll continue to improve my feeling with this track. In particular I have to work more in the third and last sector where I accuse the greatest gap from other riders. ”

Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – 16th best time in 1’51 .105
“I hadn’t got big problems with my bike even though it was slightly unstable in the curve in some sectors. Thanks to the latest setup made by my technicians, I was able to score my best lap time. Also during the last exit from the pits I had find some instructions to give to my technical to made them work on my bike so that they will made it perfectly balanced. Tomorrow we will start from here to reduce the gap that separates me from the best riders. “

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