Friday at the Gran Premio d'Italia TIM got off to a cold and wet start for the lightweight class, their first session held on an almost fully wet track. With wet tyres fitted, Hiroki Ono showed great pace to end the session second, just behind his Honda Team Asia teammate Khairul Idham Pawi. Conditions improved for Free Practice 2 and Ono’s times improved along with them, his 1’58.489 over 11 seconds faster than his time from the morning session in Mugello. It’s clear that the Italian track is one that Ono loves, in 2015 the young Japanese rider took his first front row start in the World Championship at the track. Back then he set a 1’56.904, there’s still time to find around the 5.245 kilometre track.
Hiroki Ono: “Today I tried new machine setting and then I got a better feeling, so I am happy I was so fast today. I like Mugello a lot because of the layout and the fast corners.”