Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Filippo Farioli already got back on the saddle on Friday in Misano for the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, just a couple of days after their Catalan round in Barcelona, which saw both the Moto3™ championship leader and the Moto3™ rookie head home with a DNF each. With their minds reset and now fully focused on the new race week ahead, both were extremely motivated to perform this weekend. Holgado was looking to erase the memories from his final sector’s crash in Barcelona, while Italian Farioli hoped to do well on home turf.

Fresh and early in the morning, Daniel Holgado kicked off his San Marino Grand Prix campaign with a thirteen point-lead on his title contender, and was for sure looking to extend it further before starting the overseas tour mid-September. Dani rode his fastest lap in 1’43.381 in Free Practice 1, a bit more than one second away from the morning's fastest rider and title contender Jaume Masia, a time which placed him in P13. With hotter conditions on track for FP2, times logically went down for everyone in the afternoon session. Holgado tried to improve his feelings on the bike, and focused mainly on his race pace. If he was quite far in the standings most of the session, his last flying lap saved him a seat within the top 14 of the afternoon session, and that late lap in 1’42.758 (+0.634), placed him thirteenth in the combined standings. There is still margin to improve for the championship leader, and he will look to confirm his Q2 ticket tomorrow morning in Free Practice 3, when the Moto3™ action resumes at 8:40 local time (GMT+2).

Eager to delete his memories from his unfortunate DNF at the Catalan Grand Prix, rookie Filippo Farioli was back racing on home turf as the Italian was set to dispute his second round of the season in his home country. In the morning, the young number 7 seemed to struggle finding the right feelings with his KTM on the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, and settled in P24 (1’44.167) at the end of FP1. In the second session of the day and after a few changes of settings to help him feel more comfortable, Farioli quickly improved his time, and his fastest lap of FP2 in 1’43.070 placed him in P20 in the combined standings at the end of play today. The young rookie will look to continue taking the lap times down in FP3 on Saturday morning, as he aims for another straight Q2 ticket after the one he got himself last week in Catalunya.

“In Free Practice 2, we worked well on our own for the race. The pace was decent, the feelings on the bike were good too, and we are provisionally in Q2, so this is what is important. Of course, we still have margin for improvement tomorrow, but we are on the right path, and I am happy with our first day here in Misano.”

“We did not have a great feeling with the bike today, so we made some changes during FP2, and finally I felt so much better on the bike. However, during the end of the afternoon session, it was as always so busy with everyone waiting for each other outhere. I tried to ride on my own, but that was a bit late. My fastest lap was with used tyres, so we know that we can ride faster tomorrow morning in order to be in qualifying 2.”