Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Jacob Roulstone kicked off the action of the Gran Premi de Catalunya on Friday, with the Free Practice and Practice 1 sessions on the menu in Montmelo. After a shy start to their opening day, Holgado and Roulstone were able to settle within the fastest group, with Dani finishing third of Friday, while Jacob closed day 1 in Barcelona in P8, meaning that both GASGAS Tech3 riders will have a provisional Q2 ticket to defend in Saturday morning’s Practice 2.

The day did not start in the best way for the Moto3™ championship leader Daniel Holgado who struggled to settle on the Catalan layout in the morning's Free Practice. The Spaniard closed the morning session in 18th, two seconds away from David Alonso who clocked in a new all-time lap record. Despite a few raindrops a few minutes before Practice 1, the afternoon session got underway in dry conditions, with the sun shining over the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Appearing much more comfortable on his bike, Holgado moved up to third this afternoon with a 1’47.136, while David Alonso remained faster, followed by Jose Antonio Rueda.

For our Australian Jacob Roulstone, the Catalan GP was going to be a home race away from home, with the Moto3™ rookie leaving just one hour away from the circuit. As he discovered the layout for the first time in the morning on his GASGAS, he closed the opening session of the weekend in 20th, just 0.098 seconds off his teammate. Later on, Roulstone was also one to significantly improve after he jumped up to eighth in the standing after Practice 1, with a best lap in 1’47.536. The action will resume tomorrow morning at 8:40 local time (GMT+2) for the lightweight class, with Practice 2, followed in the afternoon by the qualifying sessions.