Championship leader Franco Morbidelli topped the time sheets for the first time this weekend, ahead of Mattia Pasini and Takaaki Nakagami.
Alex Marquez managed to find some pace to take sixth, his best position in free practice this weekend since returning from injury. Thomas Luthi ended the session in ninth, only 0.3s off the pace of Morbidelli. In fact, the top four were separated by less than 0.1 of a second, one of the closest sessions we’ve seen this year. The top ninetten were covered by just under a second, with the likes of Brad Binder, Lorenzo Baldassari and Hafizh Syahrin outside of that gap.
Miguel Oliveira had a really good session, finishing in fifth. He’s slowly creeping up towards a win, and it could well come this weekend if he keeps up this pace. The tricky conditions caught him out in Misano, and he’ll be back with the burning passion to fight for his first Moto2 victory.
Top ten:
Franco Morbidelli, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1:54.200
Mattia Pasini, Italtrans Racing Team +0.010
Takaaki Nakagami, IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia +0.016
Sandro Cortese, Dynavolt Intact GP +0.095
Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Ajo +0.176
Alex Marquez, EG 0,0 Marc VDS +0.198
Simone Corsi, Speed Up Racing +0.208
Jorge Navarro, Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 +0.308
Thomas Luthi, CarXpert Interwetten +0.355
Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46 +0.383