Sole GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 representative at the Gran Premio Michelin® de la República Argentina, rookie Augusto Fernandez started his Argentinian campaign on Friday with the learnings from his positive opening round in Portimao last week, eager to continue his progress in the MotoGP™ class. Dry track conditions were declared at the start of the day, but that did not mean it was not tricky for rider and technical crew, with small drops of rain playing around all day in Termas de Río Hondo.

In Practice 1, the rookie delivered an impressive performance this morning, with encouraging lap times on a circuit he was just discovering with his RC16. Halfway through the practice, he saw a great lap getting cancelled for exceeding track limits, but that did not prevent him from continuing to push, until he registered a lap in 1’39.994, placing him thirteenth of the morning session, just 0.787 seconds from the fastest man.

In the afternoon, the sky continued to threaten the action, but Practice 2 continued to roll on in dry track conditions. His progress was stopped after a couple of laps into the session when he lost the front of his bike at Turn 1, and thrumbled through the gravel. Luckily, he came back to his pit box feeling ok, and was back on track after a quick change of leathers, with a bit less than thirty minutes to refocus. Quickly he seemed to settle back in his pace, before trying to get a fast lap in the final five minutes of the session with a new set of tyres. 1’39.561, his personal best so far in Termas, places him seventeenth in the combined standings. Just 1.043 seconds away from the top, Fernandez has a good margin to improve and will work hard for a good grid position tomorrow morning in qualifying, before lining up for his second sprint. The MotoGP™ action will return on Saturday at 10:10 (GMT+3).