The first day of activity at the Magny-Cours circuit in France ends up with positive indications for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team. After the FP1 influenced by the rain falling in the early hours of the morning, in the FP2 – held under an unpredictable sun – Scott Redding and Michael Rinaldi work hard with their Ducati Panigale V4R collecting important data in view of Race-1 scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm (CEST).
- FP1
The circuit is still very humid and Scott Redding and Michael Rinaldi take to the track only in the final part of the session – in dry conditions – to familiarize themselves with the track and collect data; the lap-times, however, are not indicative.
- FP2
P2 – It takes a few laps for Scott Redding to get the right feeling. After working on tire choice for Race 1, in the second part of the session, the English rider finds the right conditions to push hard, finishing with the second fastest time.
P9 – Michael Rinaldi remains on track for a long time, completing 20 laps and working mainly on the race pace. The improvements are tangible but the Italian driver has to fix some details especially in the second sector.
- FP2 / Combined Standings – Results
P1 – T. Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) 1’37.138
P2 – S. Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.208
P3 – J. Rea (Kawasaki) +0.288
P4 – C. Davies (Ducati) +0.334
P5 – L. Haslam (Honda) +0.407
P9 – M. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.633
Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #45)
“It was quite a weird day for me as I have never ridden on this circuit in dry conditions. For this reason, in the first part of the session, I focused mainly on finding the feeling with the circuit. Then I was able to find my pace and things went much better. We are in the right direction and I think we can improve tomorrow”.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #21)
“In FP1 we didn’t take any risks on a track that was half dry and half wet. In the afternoon we worked a little differently compared to other races, lapping a lot and reducing the set-up work. The feeling is quite good even if obviously we need to improve. At the end of the day, we are all pretty close to each other and I think that if we work well tomorrow morning we’ll be able to make a good race”.
