Thomas Luthi topped the wet first practice session of Moto2, from Mattia Pasini and Sandro Cortese.
Miguel Oliveira led the way for a lot of the session, but dropped back to fifth towards the end. Marcel Schrotter is making his return from a broken scaphoid and put in an impressive attempt to finish fourth in the session, just 0.6 seconds off Luthi’s pace. Alex Marquez is also making his injury return, and finished the session in 14th.
Championship leader Franco Morbidelli completed the top six, but FP1 results could be more important than usual if the wet conditions continue into qualifying.
You have to look towards the bottom of the results to find some of the top riders – Luca Marini, fresh from signing for the Sky Racing Team VR46 ended the session in 22nd, with Brad Binder just behind in 23rd. Tarran Mackenzie had an impressive run in 24th, only 0.1s off Binder’s pace. Mackenzie bested the likes of Takaaki Nakagami and Misano winner Dominique Aegerter.
Top ten:
- Thomas Luthi, CarXpert Interwetten – 2:09.869
- Mattia Pasini, Italtrans Racing Team +0.424
- Sandro Cortese, Dynavolt Intact GP +0.439
- Marcel Schrotter, Dynavolt Intact GP +0.603
- Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Ajo +0.700
- Franco Morbidelli, EG 0,0 Marc VDS +0.731
- Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46 +0.741
- Xavi Vierge, Tech 3 Racing +0.972
- Augusto Fernandez, Speed Up Racing +0.992
- Steven Odendaal, NTS +1.014
