After the opening day of track action at the GP Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, LCR Honda Team Manager Lucio Ceccinhello gives us his 5 keys to look out for across the rest of the weekend:
Ducati favourites for win
“Normally, after the first day of Free Practice, I’m always calm and relaxed, before previewing what could happen over the weekend. I still normally prefer that what I see on the first day confirms one of the two things that I expected. Ducati are really competitive and, what we’ve still not seen yet, is for Rossi to be ahead. Why? Because it’s a circuit where Ducati has a lot of experience because they do different tests with their test teams, therefore they have a lot of experience and for the riders, also, especially Dovizioso, it’s a home race. So, I really see Ducati being able to win this race. They will fight between them, the two Ducatis to win races. Between, Dovi and Jorge, I don’t exactly know but I see a very competitive Ducati.”
Marquez and Rossi for podium challenge
“On the other hand, I think that another rider who could fight for the podium is obviously Marc Marquez or Rossi. Rossi, we’ve also seen, historically, many times, him being behind on the Friday but he’s going to be there. He is also a rider with an incredible amount of experience at this circuit and I don’t think that the Yamaha – that everyone says isn’t as competitive as the other bikes – is clearly having problems, but with Valentino Rossi onboard could, by Sunday, be a very strong and tough competitor.”
Crutchlow going strong
“I didn’t expect that Cal could go so fast on the Friday in both the morning and the afternoon – because he was second in the morning and third in the afternoon. Because we did the test here, a month ago, and we found some small difficulties. Now, however, we’re at a really good point with the bike.”
Exciting to see so many riders so close
“Key point: today, everybody expected thunderstorms. The sky was really dark and everyone has tried the soft tyre to try to take advantage of the opportunity to try as much as possible, in case it rains tomorrow, they will be straight into Q2. There weren’t storms today so, as a first day, it excites me a lot to see so many riders so close and see Cal so far ahead.”
What will the weather do?
“We never know 100% if it will rain on Sunday. I think that Cal will be a very tough rider and in the mix.”