03 June 2022 – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – Spain

The Friday on Montmelò ends with our two drivers rather detached from the leading positions. In fact, in the combined ranking John is twentieth, while David Salvador, who in this race replaces Ayumu, is eighteenth.

John had a good improvement between the first and second free practice sessions, managing to improve his best lap by just over half a second. 1’49.854 is the time obtained in the last of the thirteen laps, during FP2. 1.179 s is the delay of our British driver from the leader of the combined ranking of Friday I. Guevara.
David has managed to be fast since free practice 1. In fact he got his best lap of 1’49.757, with which he has a gap of 1.082 seconds. Remember that David has already raced with the colors of Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max Racing, but in this case, he is followed by the team of Ayumu, of which he is the substitute.

Before leaving you to the words of the protagonists, a last mention concerns the weather, that on this day was characterized by a sun that warmed the track over 50 ºC. The low temperatures of the morning will help both our drivers to improve their chronometric references.

DAVID SALVADOR : “Today was the first day on the Barcelona track and I felt very good. This is one of my favorite tracks and this is very important to me. In FP1 we worked on the setting of the bike, in order to have a good confidence. The team pointed out to me where I can improve. In the afternoon we worked on the race pace, because the last time I raced in the World Championship I had problems in the second part of the race. For this reason, I did many laps with bald tires. In the end we also tried an H compound, although we know that the feeling is not the same. In FP2 it was very hot, and it was difficult to improve. It will be important to work in places where I can improve. In this regard I am sure I can improve a lot in the fast corners. Tonight, we will continue to work on these points. In general, I had a good feeling with the bike and this is very positive.”

JOHN MCPHEE : “We used today as a test day. It’s important because I did two races after my return to Le Mans. In the last two races I realised that there is still a lot to do to improve my driving, coming back after such a long time off. It was important to not really touch the bike and just let me ride, so today, after the race in Mugello, we decided to test something different. In the test we have done we have achieved something positive and also something negativeI think in the lap time I improved by half a second in the afternoon, so there is definitely some room for improvement next, and we will dig it in tomorrow, we will try to make the best we can do. Someone was able to do a good lap in FP1, but the track was quite dirty. In FP2, it was quite greasy because it was so hot, so I think FP3 will be definitely the fastest session of all.”

MAX BIAGGI – TEAM OWNER : “Not very exciting results in this first day of testing. We have both John and David away from the Top 15. The low temperatures of tomorrow morning’s FP3 will give us the chance to improve the best laps of both. For this reason, it is essential to reorganize ideas, in order to gain direct access to qualifying 2.”

Results Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya 2022 – Combined FP1 – FP2

1. Izan GUEVARA (GASGAS) 1’48.675, 18. David SALVADOR (Husqvarna) 1’49.757, 20. John MCPHEE (Husqvarna) 1’49.854.