Campetella Speed Up’s Jorge Navarro went one better than he did in FP1 to finish Friday at the British Grand Prix as the fastest man in Moto2, setting a new lap record of 2:04.993 to edge out Remy Gardner and FlexBox HP 40’s Augusto Fernandez on Day 1.
FP1 saw Navarro and teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio sit pretty at the top of the times as Speed Up got off to a perfect start at Silverstone, but it was Navarro who came out all guns blazing in FP2 as he went 0.8 quicker than the fastest FP1 time with 33 minutes left on the clock. And that was all she wrote in the fight for P1 on Friday.
Gardner and Fernandez moved up the timesheets later, with Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) ultimately completing the top four ahead of a solid showing from home hero Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) in P5. The Brit has been on pole at Silverstone twice before.
Championship leader Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) ended the day in sixth despite a tip off, rider ok, with Austria polesitter Tetsuta Nagashima (ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team) for close company. Marquez’ key title rival Tom Lüthi (Dynavolt Intact GP) was P8, ahead of Austria winner Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and veteran Mattia Pasini (Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2).
High profile replacement rider Bradley Smith put his Petronas Sprinta Racing machine in P27 on Day 1, but the Brit cut 1.3 seconds off his laptime from FP1 and there’ll surely be more to come on Saturday…
The times in Moto2 were blindingly fast as the intermediate class rip around the newly surfaced Silverstone, but will the top 14 change on Saturday morning? The automatic Q2 places are still up for grabs so don’t miss the action at 10:55 local time (GMT+1).
Friday’s fastest:
1 – Jorge Navarro (SPA – Speed Up) 2’04.993
2 – Remy Gardner (AUS – Kalex) +0.129
3 – Augusto Fernandez (SPA – Kalex) +0.289
4 – Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA – Kalex) +0.314
5 – Sam Lowes (GBR – Kalex) +0.328