On a track that was still full of dust, the riders were not that keen going out on track immediately after the lights went on green this morning. Riders were complaining about the rear wheel spinning up due to the dust on the track. It was even worse than the Losail track, they said. The Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit hasn’t been used that much until now, the Losail track had a few test previous to the GP weekend. Times were off by almost five seconds compared to last year. Bo Bendsneyder, who was riding here for the very first time, went out on track together with teammate Brad Binder, just like they had done in the previous GP. After five laps Bo was already in tenth spot on the timetable. In their second run Binder came up to third, Bo was in seventh. In his twelfth lap Bo steps up to fifth. In the final laps of the first free practice Binder sets the fastest time, but gets pipped by Bastianini and in the last lap Livio Loi takes second. Bo is still improving his personal best laptime, but eventually ends up in ninth at the end of the session. Bastianini goes top, followed by Loi, Binder, Navarro, Locatelli, Canet, Herrera, Fenati, Bendsneyder and Quartararo rounding up the top ten.
Times Free Practice one:
source: motogp.com, ajo.fi, badboybo64.com
