Nakagami leads Lowes in FP2
Idemitsu Honda Team Asia’s Takaaki Nakagami ended the second Moto2 free practice session at Aragon fastest after pipping Gresini’s Sam Lowes right at the death.
Nakagmi was quick this morning, finishing third on the time sheets and just six hundredths adrift. With the humidity having risen for FP2, big improvements from FP1 were hard to come by but Nakagami managed to best Lowes’ fastest time from this morning with a 1m53.702s.
Lowes held top spot right at the end of the session for all of a few seconds and actually failed to better his FP1 time, ending FP2 two hundredths outside of his best lap. Nonetheless, the British rider is looking by far and away the most comfortable rider of the field at the Spanish circuit.
Tom Luthi found a big chunk of time in the second session, the Swiss rider clocking a 1m53.793s to go third fastest on his Interwetten Kalex. Misano winner Lorenzo Baldassarri took the chequered flag in fourth spot, with countryman Franco Morbidelli fifth.
Simone Corsi confirmed Speed Up’s pace at MotorLand, ending the second session sixth fastest ahead of Dynavolt’s Jonas Folger. Johann Zarco was an underwhelming eighth, with Alex Marquez and Axel Pons rounding out the top 10.
Alex Rins is contesting his home race weekend battling a bad bout of gastroenteritis, and this clearly hindered him in FP2. The Pons rider could only manage 15th with a 1m54.879, which was slightly slower than what he managed this morning. More worryingly for him is the fact that he has a seven-tenth gap to championship rival Zarco, something he will be desperate to turn around tomorrow.
Two riders fell off during FP2. Honda Team Asia’s Rathapark Willairot crashed at Turn 12 15 minutes into the session, whilst Italtrans’ Mattia Pasini took a trip into the Turn 7 gravel trap. Both riders were unscathed in their incidents, though the same unfortunately cannot be said of Miguel Oliveira.
The Portuguese rider was involved in a collision with Morbidelli at Turn 3 this morning and landed heavily on his left shoulder. Scans at the local hospital revealed that he had broken his collarbone and will miss the race as a result. Oliveira now hopes to be fit for the Japanese Grand Prix in three weeks’ time.