Strong start for Mahias in free practice at Aragon

The GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team got off to a superb start in Aragon on Friday at Round 3 of the 2018 Supersport World Championship despite changeable track conditions. Lucas Mahias was battling at the front once again, with the joint championship leader finishing the day in second place overall with a 1:54.771. His teammate Federico Caricasulo showed good pace in the wet and dry and ended up fourth on the combined timesheets after setting a 1:54.820, incredibly just 0.070s off the fastest rider. Alfonso Coppola made a promising debut in the European Supersport Cup as he adjusted to his new team and bike, ending Friday in 23rd overall with a 1:58.009.

Reigning WorldSSP Champion Mahias enjoyed another strong day on his Yamaha R6, despite not enjoying the usual good feeling with he normally enjoys with his bike. The 28-year-old French rider decided not to head out in the tricky wet conditions that greeted the teams for FP1. Instead, the man from Mont-de-Marsan preferred to wait for the track to dry and heading out on slicks and demonstrating blistering pace to finish in second with a 1:59.797. The afternoon's FP2 session saw the sun come out and Mahias was once again battling at the top of the timesheets throughout, eventually finishing in second place overall with a 1:54.771, just 0.021s off the pace of the leading rider on an incredibly tight day that saw just 0.118s separate the top five riders. Mahias will work hard overnight with his team to improve his feeling with his R6 to give him the best chance of making it four consecutive WorldSSP pole positions on Saturday.

His teammate Caricasulo was also in devastating form. Making the most of the wet track time in the morning's FP1 session, he ended it in third place after setting a 2:01.570. With the improved track conditions in FP2, he went much quicker, demonstrating excellent consistency - which bodes well for Sunday's race - as well as a good one-lap pace. The 22-year-old Italian ended Friday in fourth on the combined timesheets with a 1:54.820, but with hardly anything to separate the top riders, he knows how important securing a good grid position for Sunday's race will be.

Making his debut in the WorldSSP Championship was 20-year-old Italian Alfonso Coppola, who is riding for the GRT Yamaha team in the European Supersport Cup after winning the inaugural Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Challenge last season and finishing as vice-champion in the main WorldSSP300 Championship. He adapted to the R6 superbly, despite it being a different beast than the R3 he rode in 2017, and finished Friday in 23rd overall, 3.259s off the leader but knowing there is more to come on Saturday.

The GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team is back in action on Saturday at 9:15 am local time in Aragon for FP3, with qualifying due to start at 2 pm and Sunday's 16-lap race at 11:30 am.

Lucas Mahias

GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team - 2nd - 1:54.771

"To be honest, I am not so happy after today because the feeling is not very good with the bike. I push a lot for this time, which is not my normal style. The problem was that we effectively missed a session this morning because it was wet, which meant we could not work on my bike setup, so it has been difficult. In FP1 I didn't ride in the rain because the forecast is good for the rest of the weekend and I wanted to wait until it was dry. In the afternoon, the feeling was strange. Yes, I was second in both sessions but this is not my target, my target is always to work on my feeling for the race by doing long runs but at the moment my bike is not quite set up well enough to do that I tested a different tyre and different setting and I pushed hard for one lap to set my best time. I have a lot of work to do with my team overnight to improve my feeling with the bike so we can get a good position on the grid for the race!"

Report and image courtesy of Yamaha Racing.