Lecuona and Petrucci display their rain skills in Misano

Unsteady weather conditions accompanied the opening day of the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini.

Following a dry start in FP1, it started to rain in the second third of the session, while FP2 on Friday afternoon was completely wet. Thereby both Tech3 KTM Factory Racing riders showed their special talent with strong lap times, although Iker Lecuona’s second session ended early.

This morning, Lecuona concluded FP1 in P17 after he was just 1.044 seconds slower than the fastest rider of the field. In the second session of the day, the Spaniard was flying over the water, but had to swallow a heavy highside crash, which stopped his strong FP2 prematurely. A medical check later luckily revealed no broken bones for the 21 years old rider.

Meanwhile, Danilo Petrucci was just 0.240 seconds off his teammate this morning and like Lecuona went fast from the word go on the wet tarmac. He eventually ended rainy Free Practice two in the afternoon in seventh position, eager to make further steps from FP3 tomorrow at 9.55 local time.

Iker Lecuona, Position: 17th, Time: 1:33.710, Laps: 27: “In dry FP1, I struggled a lot in general. We tried something, but it didn’t work very well. I couldn’t turn the bike and on this track it’s really important. We wanted to try in FP2, but it started to rain. Finally, we went out in the wet, which I always like.

Still, I didn’t feel very good with the bike and was fighting with the rear grip. I changed the front tyre, went out again and on the third lap I had a bit more lean angle in corner one and had a massive highside. Fortunately, nothing is broken, but I still have some pain in the right foot. I will try to recover for tomorrow and keep working.”

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Danilo Petrucci, Position: 20th, Time: 1:33.950, Laps: 33: “This morning, when we joined the track, there was a lot of traction, but also many bumps, which made everything more difficult.

We tried to fix it a bit and had some ideas, but then the rain came and it was very difficult for us to improve the setup. Later in the wet, we got a good feeling, but the conditions have been pretty difficult, as there was a lot of standing water. It was good to ride, but very tricky. We will try again tomorrow.”

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