02 September 2022 – Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli – Italy

Friday’s free practices ended with Ayumu’s second place and John’s fifth.

The day was characterized by a nice sun, some clouds, and the temperature in the morning increased progressively, until it reached 41 ºC during free practice 2.

Ayumu in free practice 1 finished second and in FP2 confirmed this position. In the second session he lowered his time by just over half a second, getting the time of 1’41.990. Twenty-six laps completed by Ayumu in the two sessions and gap from the leader of the combined standings D. Foggia of 0.382 s.
John in the morning session did not get a very good time, but in the afternoon our British driver had a considerable improvement. In fact, with a time of 1’42.278 John improved his best lap by about two seconds. 0.670 s is John’s gap from the lead.

These positions of our two drivers are very important, especially considering that tomorrow could rain and with this result Ayumu and John would have secured access to Q2
Here are the words of Ayumu, John and our Team Owner Max Biaggi.

AYUMU SASAKI : “We had a good start today, I felt good on the bike. We need small adjustments on the bike, but we already know where are those problems, and if we fix those I think we will get closer to the first position. I think overall today went well, and I felt good so that is the main thing. We know that Foggia is one of the fastest, but we are very close to him and I think he had a great start.We have a great pace, so we just need to focus and see what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. They say it is going to rain, but I feel good on the rain as well.”

JOHN MCPHEE : Today we worked a lot on testing. In fact during free practice we tried some different things with the bike, just trying to find that a good base that we have been missing over the last few races. To improve the performance of the last laps of the race, today we explored a little bit more, trying some new things. I think we managed to find something in the correct way, for this track at least. So it was a successful day, I finished overall in P5, so for now I am happy. I am glad I worked a lot on myself and tomorrow tomorrow we can try to do the same.”

MAX BIAGGI – TEAM OWNER : “A good first day on the Misano World Circuit, both for Ayumu and for John. The weather for the next two days is rather uncertain, so, if it rains, these positions could be decisive for qualifying, I’m happy that in these last races we are able to be always very fast. However, it will be necessary to confirm in the race.”

Results Gran Premio Gryfyn di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini – Combined FP1 – FP2

1. Dennis FOGGIA (Honda) 1’41.608, 2. Ayumu SASAKI (Husqvarna) 1’41.990, 5. John MCPHEE (Husqvarna) 1’42.278.