Iannone leads first Aragón run

The Moto2 class got the Gran Premio A-Style de Aragón underway on Friday morning with the first of three practice sessions in a new format for the weekend, and it was Andrea Iannone who laid down the first marker on the new track with a best lap of 1'56.223 on board his Fimmco Speed Up machine. The Italian, who led the unofficial test at the circuit at the start of July, was 0.061s faster than Julián Simón, with whom he is battling closely with for second spot in the Championship standings.

The Mapfre Aspar rider had led the 45-minute session at one stage but was overtaken by Italian Iannone towards the end, and Simón improved his best effort to 1'56.284 with his 17th and final turn. That put him 0.139s ahead of Claudio Corti (Forward Racing) who was third.

In fourth position was British wild card entry Kev Coghlan, riding an FTR machine this weekend for the Monlau Joe Darcey team. Coghlan, utilising his knowledge of the circuit from his CEV Buckler (Spanish National Championship) experience, was 0.415s off the lead time in the session.

Completing the top five was Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) at just under half a second off Iannone, with Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) and Sergio Gadea (Tenerife 40 Pons) sixth and seventh respectively. Santiago Hernández, brother of Moto2 regular Yonny and riding as a substitute for Lukas Pesek on the Matteoni CP Racing Team this weekend, was an impressive eighth at just over eight-tenths off Iannone.

Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki) and Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) completed the top ten, with young British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) 11th. Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) was 23rd in the session at 1.749s off the lead time.

There were falls early in the session for Kenny Noyes (Jack&Jones by Antonio Banderas) and Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT Singha-SAG), both without consequence.