Day 1 on French soil began in the morning with FP1, where Odendaal and Sebestyen had to pay particular attention to the conditions of the asphalt, dry but not completely after the rain that fell during the night. In these particular conditions Steven put together 17 laps, taking a positive 6th place. Peter completed 19 laps, taking 19th place.
In the afternoon the Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team riders returned to the track for FP2, which took place on a dry track. Of the 45 minutes available Odendaal was only able to make use of 12, however, due to a crash at turn two caused by Okubo, who was not paying attention when exiting the pit lane and caused them both to crash. There were no physical consequences for Steven, but he had to interrupt his set up work prematurely. The session went smoothly for Peter, who was able to improve his best time compared to the morning, ending the session in P17.
With the free practice sessions complete, the Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team is now ready to face the Superpole, which will be staged tomorrow at 10.25. On the same day the lights will go out for Race 1 (15.15), the first of two races scheduled for the weekend at Magny - Cours. Both tomorrow's sessions will be visible live (in Italy) on Sky Sport MotoGP, channel 208 of the Sky platform.
FP1 + FP2 results #FRAWorldSBK
P1 - Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha) 1'41"314
P2 - Federico Caricasulo (Yamaha) +0.029
P3 - Andy Verdoia (Yamaha) +0.046
P4 - Jules Cluzel (Yamaha) +0.064
P5 - Valentin Debise (Yamaha) +0.295
P9 - Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, Yamaha) +0.546
P17 - Peter Sebestyen (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, Yamaha) +1.115
Steven Odendaal: “It wasn't the day we wanted. In the morning we started to work in the right way, getting the first answers, but in the afternoon I crashed without fault after a few minutes. I'm lucky to be okay, as the crash was at a very high speed. Unfortunately we weren't able to take full advantage of the day, but we have to stay positive as we have a Superpole and Race 1 tomorrow where fight”
Peter Sebestyen: "It's hard to say that I'm happy in 17th position, but I am. We improved a lot today and for the first time I enjoyed every single run of the day. I had a lot of confidence, which also helped me to give more precise indications to the team. We still have a big margin to exploit, and we are certainly on the right track now. I really want to thank the team for their work: the best is yet to come”.