Federal Oil Gresini rider Sam Lowes ended the first session at MotorLand Aragon for the Moto2 World Championship fastest, but only by a tiny margin in what was a highly competitive FP1.
Lowes comes into this weekend with his championship challenge all but gone after crashing out of the San Marino Grand Prix, his focus now on trying to end his tenure in the intermediate class on a high before stepping up to MotoGP with Aprilia next season.
The British rider was quick from he off, troubling the top three times throughout the session before twisting the screw and posting a best lap of 1m53.767s to go fastest. Though early days, Lowes’ long run pace was hugely impressive, the former Aragon winner in World Supersport lapping in the mid-low 1m34s bracket for fun.
Dynavolt Intact GP’s Jonas Folger ended the session second fastest, with Idemitsu Honda Team Asia’s Taka Nakagami in third. The top three in FP1 were split by just six hundredths of a second and were two tenths clear of the rest of the field.
Simone Corsi held top spot for a brief moment before being bumped back to fourth on the Speed Up, whilst Sandro Cortese enjoyed a much more promising morning on the second Dynavolt Kalex in fifth.
Championship leader Johann Zarco flew under the radar in FP1 and was sixth fastest at the drop of the chequered flag. The Frenchman holds a slender three-point advantage over Alex Rins coming into the Aragon round, though he stands a good chance of extending that this weekend as Rins is battling illness. The Spaniard was ninth fastest and only three tenths off Zarco, which isn’t a disaster at this early stage of the Grand Prix.
Tom Luthi and Franco Morbidelli slotted in between the two title rivals in seventh and eighth, with AGR’s Marcel Schrotter rounding out the top 10. Morbidelli may find himself called up to Race Direction during the lunch break after he and Leopard’s Miguel Oliveira collided at Turn 3 at the start of FP1. The Italian made a bit of a ham-fisted move on the inside of Oliveira, the Portuguese rider coming off the worst in this incident. At the time of writing, he is currently being checked over at the medical centre for a suspected collarbone injury.
Twitter: Not a pleasant start to the #AragonGP for @MiguelMoto3 as he’s collected by @FrankyMorbido12
Both up & walking
https://t.co/rYohsceIup (@MotoGP)
Wild card Steven Odendal was the only other rider to take a tumble in FP1. The newly crowned CEV Moto2 Champion, Odendal’s return to Grand Prix racing was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The South African crashed twice, once at Turn 1 and again on an out-lap at Turn 15. Thankfully, he was unhurt, though his confidence may have just taken a bit of a knock.
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