The Termas de Rio Hondo circuit welcomed the MotoGP category today with good weather for the second round of the 2019 World Championship.
If FP1 was a sort of warm-up to get back on track or find your feet on the still somewhat dirty Argentinian track, FP2 proved to be of rare intensity, with the final result of no less than 21 drivers in the field. same second.
Suffice to say that every tenth was worth gold, in a game where both the rookie Miguel Oliveira which Hafiz Syahrin, the two residents of the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, have made notable progress, the first improving his morning time by more than 1,5 seconds, and even leading the KTM troops for a moment within the top 10, the second reducing his gap by consistently with the best.
At the end of this first day, Miguel Oliveira only misses provisional Q2 by 0,377 seconds, while Hafiz Syahrin improved his best time by 1,927 seconds between the first and second free practice sessions to finally find himself just 1.571 seconds from the top.
Miguel Oliveira : “Today was a good day. I think we improved a lot from FP1 to FP2. We did a good job, had good pace in the second practice session and I felt comfortable with the bike. I'm still looking to take another step, because with the new tire we're not gaining as much traction as the others, so it's something we need to look at to be more competitive. But in any case, I'm happy with the general work, the pace, my riding was good today, so I intend to continue improving like that.
Hafiz Syahrin : “I’m quite surprised. In the morning, I didn't have a good feeling with the bike, it was like in Qatar. Later we only made very small changes, but we found very good grip at the rear compared to this morning. I couldn't use the potential of the soft tyres, because I couldn't really know where the limit was. But ultimately I feel really good with the bike, and we can fight closer to the others since I almost improved by two seconds this afternoon. We think we can still improve tomorrow. Now that I am starting to understand how we should work, we need one more step forward to bring us closer.”
MotoGP Argentinian Grand Prix, FP2 classification:
| Pos | number | Pile | Motorcycle | Chrono | 1st gap | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'39.181 | ||
| 2 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 1'39.190 | 0.009 | 0.009 |
| 3 | 12 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 1'39.345 | 0.164 | 0.155 |
| 4 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'39.346 | 0.165 | 0.001 |
| 5 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Yamaha | 1'39.357 | 0.176 | 0.011 |
| 6 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'39.441 | 0.260 | 0.084 |
| 7 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'39.451 | 0.270 | 0.010 |
| 8 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 1'39.497 | 0.316 | 0.046 |
| 9 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Yamaha | 1'39.503 | 0.322 | 0.006 |
| 10 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | 1'39.629 | 0.448 | 0.126 |
| 11 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia | 1'39.654 | 0.473 | 0.025 |
| 12 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'39.697 | 0.516 | 0.043 |
| 13 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 1'39.740 | 0.559 | 0.043 |
| 14 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 1'39.799 | 0.618 | 0.059 |
| 15 | 36 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | 1'39.946 | 0.765 | 0.147 |
| 16 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 1'39.951 | 0.770 | 0.005 |
| 17 | 5 | johann zarco | KTM | 1'39.956 | 0.775 | 0.005 |
| 18 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 1'39.995 | 0.814 | 0.039 |
| 19 | 88 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | KTM | 1'40.006 | 0.825 | 0.011 |
| 20 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | 1'40.110 | 0.929 | 0.104 |
| 21 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda | 1'40.159 | 0.978 | 0.049 |
| 22 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM | 1'40.752 | 1.571 | 0.593 |
Syahrin, Argentina MotoGP 2019
