The long wait is finally over and we are back to continue the season with the Grand Prix Bwin of Portugal, which stops in Estoril city situated not too far away from the clear blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

In this Grand Prix weekend, the schedule for the 125cc class race will be postponed to the Moto2 and the Premier class. The change has occurred to adapt the TV broadcasting channels to the different GMT time.

During the entire day, the weather conditions were unstable with frequent transitions from sun to clouds that ultimately carried rain. In fact the rain’s arrival was forecasted with a chance of 70%. Fortunately for the 125cc class, the free practice sessions were run on dry conditions, although constantly monitorizing the uncertain weather conditions in order to be right away ready for bike and tyre setting.

Friday is the free practice day and the final result does not relatively matter; the satisfaction of both the riders counted the most. Francesco obtained a positive performance and Sarath, that missed the free practice qualifying for very little, performed very well.

Francesco Mauriello, 1’52.877:

“It has definitely been a good day. I’m riding on this track for the very first time and the morning free practice I wasn’t feeling at ease because I don’t know it. However in 15 laps I began to digest it: in fact in the second practice session I had a better feeling that helped me to lower my lap time of 3 seconds. The track is harsh but I like it. It’s fast and I especially like the uphill chicane, which I manage to do well.
The weather is unstable and threatens rain; even though I don’t dislike wet conditions, I hope it to be dry because we still have got a little bit of work to do on the bike to improve the setting.”

Sarath Kumar, 1’54.797:

“From the free practice 1, I managed to shave off 4 seconds: it’s an important result for me of which I’m very happy. I have a good feeling with the set-up, I feel confident and for this reason, tomorrow I hope to get rid of other 2 seconds at least, so that I can get qualified. The track is peculiar and before today, I’d never ridden over slopes. It’s the fist time I face uphill and downhill corners, it’s a bit hard but not too much. Then I like this track, it seems to be very technical and it gives me a good feeling.
My target for tomorrow is to do much better and of course, attempting at getting qualified for the race.”