Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Scott Redding made a significant improvement during this evening’s third MotoGP free practice session, overcoming grip issues to finish 12th and within 0.6s of provisional pole sitter Marc Marquez.

Redding struggled for rear grip and with a lack of feedback from the front tyre during the first free practice session this evening. In the interval his technical crew made significant changes to the set up of the bike, which brought immediate improvements when the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider took to the track for tonight’s second MotoGP free practice.

The 22-year-old Briton bettered his target lap time as the session drew to a close, to finish within 0.6s of the fastest time of the day. However, with the top 17 riders all within a second, it wasn’t enough to elevate Redding higher than 12th on the timesheet.

Scott Redding: 12th – 1’55.447

“The first session was really difficult, because the feeling I’d had with the front here at the test simply wasn’t there today. The problem was made worse by a lack of rear grip; whatever I tried I just couldn’t seem to improve. For the second session we made some fairly big changes to the bike and, straight away, the feeling was there again. In some corners the problems we’d had in the morning were completely eliminated, while in others they were only reduced, but the feeling overall was much better. My target was to do a 1’55.5 so I was happy enough when I got down to a 1’55.4, until I saw my position on the timesheet! It’s tough out there and we still need to do some work tomorrow, especially in the last sector where I’m losing four tenths in just three corners.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal

“There’s no denying the fact that Scott struggled this morning, having been unable to rediscover the feeling with the bike that he’d had at the test here. It was difficult to understand why he was having problems, as the set up of the bike was unchanged. However, Scott and his crew worked their way through the problems to come up with a solution ahead of the second session, which brought an immediate improvement. Not only did they go faster, but also they now have a far better understanding of the bike, which will stand them in good stead in the future. There is still work to do, and further improvements to find, but I’m fairly satisfied with the end result today, given the issues we encountered.”