The weekend kicked off with FP1, run by the reigning World Champion team in the morning. Steven immediately started working on the set-up of his Yamaha YZF-R6, putting in a total of 18 laps, and taking eighth position in the classification. At the same time Peter used the first practice session to get a feel for the track, also completing 18 laps and taking P17.
FP2 started at 16:00, with a marked increase in temperature, which did not prevent Odendaal and Sebestyen from improving their best times. At the end of the session Steven reached 5th position, improving his best lap by four tenths and obtaining 7th position in the combined classification, while Peter finished 21st in the session and 22nd on the day, with an improvement of about two tenths.
Tomorrow it will be time to get serious. The day in fact will open at 10.25 with the Superpole, which will determine the starting grid for the two scheduled races, the first of which will start tomorrow at 15.15. Both sessions will be visible live (in Italy) on Sky Sport MotoGP, channel 208 of the Sky platform.
FP1 + FP2 results #NavarraWorldSBK
P1 - Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha) Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha) 1'41"181
P2 - Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha) +0.016
P3 - Federico Caricasulo (Yamaha) +0.375
P4 - Simon Jespersen (Yamaha) +0.488
P5 - Jules Cluzel (Yamaha) +0.600
P7 - Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, Yamaha) +0.663
P22 - Peter Sebestyen (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, Yamaha) +2.062
Steven Odendaal: "We had some difficulties today, as the right feelings didn't come as easily as we expected. We have to work on the race pace, improving mainly in the second and third sectors. This evening we will not leave anything to chance, in order to fight for the first positions tomorrow".
Peter Sebestyen: "It wasn't the Friday we wanted, but we are not giving up. The fact that I have never ridden at this track certainly didn't help, but apart from that we just have to analyse all the data we collected in the two sessions and work out how to improve. I have great confidence in the team, and I'm sure things will be better tomorrow".