After a damp start to proceedings this morning, a dry second practice saw a flurry of fast laps culminate in a best time of the day for home rider Aron Canet ahead of the Catalan Grand Prix.
Rain overnight left the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya damp for the start of Moto3 free practice, though all but four riders ventured out on track and put in some decent running on the revised layout.
Mercifully, the track was completely dry by the time the afternoon session got underway and the field wasted no time in utilising the perfect conditions.
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda rider Canet came into the second session on the back foot after failing to turn a lap this morning due to a highside exiting Turn 10.
Top spot traded hands constantly as the final few minutes of the session counted down, but it was a perfectly timed final effort of 1m54.257s from Canet that saw the Spaniard fastest of all at the chequered flag.
Romano Fenati did hold top spot briefly as the clock counted down, but was shuffled back to second, the Italian almost three tenths of a second outside of Canet’s best. Championship leader Joan Mir completed the top three, 0.064 seconds behind Fenati.
Nicolo Bulega headed Sky VR46 KTM team-mate and Mugello race winner Andrea Migno by 0.206s in fifth spot, while Jorge Martin completed the top six.
Enea Bastianini remained largely anonymous throughout much of the session, as he has done in fact for much of this season. However, the Italian sprung back into past form with a 1m54.973s to go an encouraging seventh quickest ahead of Tatsuki Suzuki.
Bo Bendsneyder continued to evaluate a revised version of the 2016 KTM chassis in practice and ends Friday’s running ninth, with CIP Mahindra’s Marco Bezzecchi carrying on his strong form from the damp morning session to complete the top 10 in second practice.
Niccolo Antonelli headed Philipp Oettl to finish Friday 11th overall, with Livio Loi showing a little more promise on the Leopard Honda in 13th ahead of Mugello podium finisher Fabio Di Giannantonio and the returning Gabriel Rodrigo, who missed the last two races due to a collarbone injury.
