Stefan Bradl has warned that he and the LCR Honda team have plenty of room for improvement after he finished first practice down in seventh. The German is seen by many as a dark horse heading into this weekend but he trailed Jorge Lorenzo by almost a full second in Thursday night’s opening session.
After completing sixteen laps, Bradl said he saw a repeat of the problem that hindered the Hondas at Jerez but with two practice sessions to go before the top ten are seeded for qualifying, he isn’t concerned by his current position.
“Actually the 7th position was not our target but I feel better than what is on the paper. When we changed the front setting it took me some time to adapt but at the end I found my rhythm. Our weak point is the braking area and we spotted the same issues of Jerez pre-season test so I missed some confidence right now. However I am quite sure that we can improve the package before tomorrow and this makes me really happy with this first day of practices. We do have the potential to improve our pace and our position on this track”.
The two remaining practice sessions will take place on Friday evening before the new-look qualifying session on Saturday with the top ten from the combined practice sessions automatically advancing to the second session on Saturday afternoon.