Both Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders were in the top ten on the opening day of free practice with Joan Mir second and Alex Marquez seventh.

In sunny and warm conditions Mir and Marquez were right on the pace in free practice for the Dutch TT with the top eight riders separated by just 0.4s.

Mir continued his impressive rookie run in his debut Moto2 season with with his best lap of 1.38.191 in FP2 just 0.1s off the fastest of the day. Mir slashed a massive 0.7s off his time from the morning FP1 session making him a contender for a front row starting spot in qualifying.

For Marquez it was tougher day with the determined Spaniard bouncing back from a heavy tumble in FP1 to finish the day eighth fastest with a best lap of 1.38.525, impressively just 0.4s outside the best time of the day.

Tomorrow’s FP3 session at 10:55am will be important to fine tune race set-up before qualifying at 3:05pm.
 

Joan Mir: 2nd, 1’38.191

“We worked a lot today to improve the rear grip so I’m very happy with this performance and now I will focus on continuing with this pace for tomorrow. My main goal is to have a strong rhythm for the race on Sunday but it would be also nice to qualify on the front row or even pole position.”
 

Alex Marquez: 8th, 1’38.525

“We have a good base to work from for qualifying tomorrow despite my crash in the morning and we now understand the direction we need for the race. We made a small mistake with the set-up today and so this was not my best Friday of the season but I am positive that we can improve tomorrow for qualifying.”