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Pol Espargarò is up front, while Marc Marquez is lagging behind, in 15th position. The first day of testing in Mandalika was really special, and we can see that from the ranking. The Indonesian circuit wasn’t certainly at its best, dirty beyond belief. So much so that the test was red-flagged, and trucks were sent out to try to get the track cleaned.
"I said it was going to be useless. They just moved the dirt from one place to another. What we had to do was ride the bikes,” Marc said. And that’s what they did. In the end, the situation improved, even if it wasn’t yet back to normal.
"I think it's an interesting track, especially the second sector, which is very difficult,” Marquez explained. “We obvioulsy found extreme conditions in terms of dirt on the track and, in the end, we managed to clean only one trajectory. You never know what’ll happen. Overtaking was impossible today because, if you went off the trajectory, you ended up wide, and you couldn't brake. I think it’ll be different for the GP, and also for the upcoming days of these tests. We’ll continuously lower the times."
The champion from Cervera was able to start getting an idea of the track.
"I haven't pushed to the limit yet, but I can say that I like the first sector, and also the third and fourth. I don't like the second one, it's too fast,” he said smiling. “When you’re there, you push, but it’s really fast and there are holes. If you take big risks, you can gain a lot of time, but it wasn’t the right moment to do it."
Pol Espargarò pushed a bit more, but he knows how much the times set today are not that indicative. “I’d call it a symbolic time, because we’ll all be faster tomorrow,” he said.
Yet, it’s better to be up front than behind.
"Starting out well is important, but it's just the beginning,” he said, taking stock of the situation. “I’m happy with the result, with the way we’ve worked but, right now, it’s difficult to know what'll happen. Every time I did a flying lap today, it was better than I expected, but it was just a matter of the track being cleaned. What do I think of this track? I like it a lot, it's fast. If I lapped in 1'32" today, I think we could go below 1'30". That means it's a really fast track."
