Quite unlike the opening Grand Prix of the season, round two got underway beneath bright blue skies and warm sunshine today, with the first official practice sessions taking place at the Spanish cathedral of motorcycle racing, Jerez. Sergio Gadea, the hero from Qatar, continues his recovery from a shoulder injury but was the third fastest Spaniard on track today, tenth overall.

His team-mate Gábor Talmacsi, the reigning World Champion, was just one place behind Sergio. The Hungarian was not flustered by his discreet start to the weekend and will look to make up positions tomorrow as he targets a repeat of his victory here last year – his first in Bancaja Aspar colours.

The youngest member of the team, Pere Tutusaus, was satisfied with the consistency he showed today, even though he is still some way off the positions he would like to be challenging for. Pere knows that he has plenty of room for improvement and tomorrow he’ll be giving maximum effort to put on a good show for his home crowd.

10th Sergio Gadea: 1.48.846 (12 laps): “I don’t feel too tired so that’s a good sign that the collarbone is healing well. I still don’t have complete confidence in my shoulder in these conditions and I’m worried about crashing. At the start we had a few set-up problems but we managed to solve them as the session progressed and now everything is in good shape for tomorrow. To arrive here on top of the championship is an extra motivation but the victory in Qatar is long behind us – this is Jerez and we have to give everything we have tomorrow.”

11th Gábor Talmacsi: 1.48.848 (12 laps): “Jerez is a circuit I like and I’m really keen to do well here. The RSA is a tough bike to set up so we’ll keep studying the data tonight to try and make sure we’re as high up the grid as possible for the start on Sunday. We struggled to find the right setting during practice in Qatar and it’s the same here in Jerez but we found our way for the last race so I’m not worried.”

24th Pere Tutusaus: 1.50.340 (15 laps): “It has been a strange first day because the set-up work we’d done in Qatar and here in the test doesn’t seem to be as useful as we’d expected. The front feels as though it’s going to fold in the fast corners so we need to find a better shock setting before the race on Sunday. I spent a lot of time within the top 20 and that gives me confidence that I can put a good consistent rhythm together for the race.”