Mattia Pasini topped the Moto2 timesheets on the opening day of running for the San Marino Grand Prix, while Alex Marquez has been ruled out with a pelvic injury.
First practice pacesetter Marquez suffered a big highside crash at Turn 8 in the closing stages of this morning’s session, and was stretchered off track before being taken to the medical centre.
Initially feared to have fractured his pelvis, it was revealed he was suffering from some internal bleeding in his pelvic area, and it was deemed unsafe for him to continue riding this weekend.
Italtrans rider Pasini got his Friday off to a steady start in seventh this morning, but upped his pace in second practice, storming to the top of the timesheets with a 1m38.061s in the final minutes of the session.
This edged him 0.065 seconds clear of sole Marc VDS runner and championship leader Franco Morbidelli, who was also second fastest this morning.
Silverstone race winner Takaaki Nakagami completed the top three on Friday, 0.087s off the pace, while Dominique Aegerter impressed on the Suter chassis in fourth ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira.
Tom Luthi slipped to sixth on the timesheets by the chequered flag and will be left scratching his head at the four-tenth gap between himself and Pasini.
Francesco Bagnaia was a further 0.002s behind Luthi in seventh as he aims, with compatriot Simone Corsi eighth.
Hafizh Syahrin briefly held top spot in second practice, but a late fall at the penultimate corner left him stranded in ninth spot ahead of last year’s race winner Lorenzo Baldassarri.
Stefano Manzi scored his best result of the season with a seventh last time out at Silverstone, and has seemingly carried that form forward into his home round after ending Friday’s running 0.008s from the top 10 in 11th.
Jorge Navarro visited the 2.6-mile Misano circuit’s gravel traps twice on Friday, the Spaniard walking away unscathed from both tumbles. He ended the day 12th from Luca Marini – who also crashed in the afternoon session – Isaac Vinales and Axel Pons.
Joe Roberts, Fabio Quartararo and Marcel Schrotter’s injury relief Alex De Angelis were the other fallers in the afternoon session, while Tarran Mackenzie was a non-started after destroying his Kiefer Suter in a crash this morning.
