Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli heads into tomorrow’s running as the man to beat after topping the combined timesheets at the end of FP2.
The Italian cruised to a maiden win in the Moto2 World Championship last time out in Qatar, and will be keen on repeating that this weekend in Argentina. Morbidelli spent much of the session working on race pace before putting in a time attack in the closing minutes.
Morbidelli blasted to the top of the pile with a 1m44.188s to go 0.149s clear of Dynavolt Intact GP’s Marcel Schrotter, the German proving the new Suter frame very much has the capability to put in a competitive flying lap.
Honda Team Asia’s Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top three, with Forward Racing’s Lorenzo Baldassarri just 0.051s back in fourth. The Italian, along with team-mate Luca Marini, have been testing a new double exhaust identical to that run by KTM today.
KTM’s Miguel Oliveira had a steady start to proceedings, the Portuguese rider finishing FP1 down in 18th. He upped his pace this afternoon to go fifth fastest with a 1m44.498s. Alex Marquez suffered a fairly heavy fall this morning at Turn 3, but suffered no ill effects from it and ended the day sixth overall.
Mattia Pasini ran at the top of the timesheets for some time in the second session, though fell to seventh by the drop of the chequered flag. He headed Speed Up’s Simone Corsi, Tech 3’s Xavi Vierge and Kiefer Suter’s Dominique Aegerter.
Hafizh Syahrin needs to start improving his qualifying performances this season having shown good race pace in 2016. The Malaysian looks to be making progress on his single lap pace in Argentina, finishing the day half a second off the pace in 11th.
Tom Luthi was a mystifyingly lowly 13th by the Swiss rider’s standards, with Danny Kent and Fabio Quartararo close behind to complete the top 15.
