Tom Lüthi (13th) is not nervous

The track conditions on the first day of free practice for the Grand Prix of Argentina this Sunday, on the circuit of Termas de Rio Hondo (start of the Moto2 race at 7:20 pm, Swiss time) were still not ideal.
In fact, we were almost 2 seconds (MotoGP) and 1,5 seconds (Moto2) off the best lap times from last year on this circuit located in the north of the country, in a region that suffered from severe flooding in the last few days. Very fast this morning in the first free practice (Thomas Lüthi / carXpert Interwetten 3rd fastest and Jesko Raffin/ Garage Plus Interwetten 12th fastest), the two Swiss riders of CGBM Evolution stepped back in the afternoon with changing grip on the circuit: “The day was mixed for us, with a good morning session and a bit worse afternoon session. The track became faster, all riders improved their initial times, but Tom and Jesko did not manage to take it a step further. That said, 13th for Tom does not reflect his pace, if we look at the number of fast laps he did. In addition to that, Jesko had some stomach issues which certainly did not help him at the end of today. It should be cooler tomorrow and the track conditions will change as usual. It is now for us to make the most of it, “explained Frédéric Corminboeuf, the boss of the company that aligns the two teams on the Moto2 World Championship grid. A special word again to clarify that as in Qatar two weeks ago, Spaniard Julian Simón will be replacing youngster Iker Lecuona (Garage Plus Interwetten), who was injured during the test in Jerez de la Frontera before the start of the season. Iker could be back with his team in Texas in two weeks.

He said…
Thomas Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten, 13th): "It is strange, the track does not seem to be dirty but it is simply a lot slower than last year. We already had some problems this morning, but nothing serious, it was just set-up – finding the right adjustments for the race – and that is what free practice sessions are for. It was just the first day, me and my chief technician Gilles Bigot know exactly what we need to do to make up for what we missed today. The gaps are very small – Top-23 riders are in less than a second and in our category, as today, everything is decided on small details. We still have work to do but it’s going well because in my team we like this!”

_{Termas de Río Hondo (Arg). GP of Argentina Moto2, first free practice day (2 sessions): 1. Morbidelli (ITA, Kalex), 1’44.188 (166.000 km/h); 2. Schrötter (GER, Suter), + 0.149; 3. Nakagami (JPN, Kalex), à 0.226; 4. Baldassari (ITA, Kalex), + 0.259; 5. Oliveira (POR, KTM), + 0.310; 6. A. Marquez (SPA, Kalex), + 0.369; 7. Pasini (ITA, Kalex), + 0.445; 8. Corsi (ITA, Speed Up), + 0.463; 9. Vierge (SPA, Tech 3), + 0.477; 10. Aegerter (SWI, Suter), + 0.503. Further: 13. Lüthi (SWI, Kalex, carXpert Interwetten), + 0.592; 26. Simón (SPA, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), + 1.403; 27. Raffin (SWI, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), + 1.525. 32 classified.}