Austin, Texas – 10 April 2015: Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider, Scott Redding, showed his wet weather prowess by posting the third fastest time in this morning’s wet free practice, which was interrupted when a dog ventured onto the track forcing the session to be red flagged.

The weather had improved ahead of this afternoon’s second 45-minute free practice, but the track remained too damp for slick tyres until 20 minutes into the session, at which point Redding took to the track for the first time.

The 22-year-old Briton quickly found his rhythm and spent much of the free practice inside the top ten, only to be relegated to 12th position as a number of rivals switched to the soft rear tyre right at the end of the session.

Redding was satisfied with his progress on the opening day at the Circuit of the Americas and is confident that he and his crew can find further improvements tomorrow, regardless of what the unpredictable Texan weather throws at them.

Scott Redding: 12th – 2’06.216
“This morning in the wet FP1 session we managed to find a good set up and a good feeling in the rain, which was good for us. Even FP2 wasn’t too bad, as the feeling was better than it was in Qatar, so we’ve made the step forward that we were expecting, but we still need to work a little bit more with the chassis set up to get the bike to turn a little better. In Qatar I felt like I’d lost the feeling with the bike, but today I felt much more comfortable on the bike and that builds confidence. I think we can find further improvements tomorrow, but today was a pretty good start to the weekend for us, despite the unpredictable weather.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“Scott did a good job and made a strong start to the weekend today. He looked a lot more comfortable on the bike here in Austin than he did a few weeks ago in Qatar and this was reflected in his lap times, both in the wet and the dry. There is still some work to do to, both for him and the team, if he is to close the gap to the frontrunners, but he’s less than a tenth of a second behind Jorge Lorenzo and the same from the top ten, so already it’s a big improvement compared to Qatar. Now he just needs to carry this momentum into FP3 tomorrow where, if it’s dry, his aim must be to qualify for QP2.”