De Angelis on top with quick first session

Alex de Angelis (RSM Team Scot) took his Force GP210 prototype around Mugello in the quickest time of the hour-long first Moto2 practice at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM, with a lap of 1’56.422 standing firm for the latter half of the session. De Angelis set his best time on the 13th of his 22 turns, and was 0.217s quicker than second fastest Sergio Gadea.

Tenerife 40 Pons rider Gadea pushed himself into that position with a best time of 1’56.639 on his penultimate lap, 0.076s faster than Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) whose finest effort came on his final round of the Tuscan track. Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up) made it four different chassis occupying the top four positions as he came in just under two-tenths behind Simón.

Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing), Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing), Yuki Takahashi (Tech3 Racing) and Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) – at present second in the Championship standings – were tightly grouped from positions five to eight, and Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar) and Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) completed a top ten separated by just 0.918s.

Current Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) was 11th fastest, 1.032 off the time set by De Angelis. British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) finished the practice in 19th position.

The second practice session for the Moto2 class begins at 11.10am local time on Saturday morning.