West warms up fastest at wet Estoril

The 30-minute Moto2 warm up for the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal took place on a wet track at Estoril on Sunday morning, although the appearance of the sun will have offered hope of better conditions for the race. The continued difficult surface conditions again caused a number of riders to fall however, as preparations were complicated.

Anthony West (MZ Honda) managed to avoid any mishaps as he set the best time of the session with a lap of 1’55.602. Just 0.006s behind was front row starter Kenan Sofuoglu (Technomag-CIP), although the Turkish rider was one of those who did take a fall. Michael Ranseder (Vector Kiefer Racing), Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) and Raffaele De Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) completed the top five, the latter two also experiencing crashes.

Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), who will start from second on the grid, was eighth in the session, with pole man Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) 15th. His team-mate Andrea Iannone, who is battling Simón for second in the Championship and will start from 35th on the grid, warmed up 14th fastest.

Turn ten proved to be a point at which a number of riders encountered problems – Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP), Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) and Valentin Debise (WTR San Marino Team) all fell there. Ferrucio Lamborghini (Matteoni Racing) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) also both went down during the half-hour run.

The Moto2 race is scheduled to get underway at 11.15pm local time. Absent from the session after a crash on Saturday in FP3 which resulted in a fractured collarbone was Alex Debón (Aeroport de Castelló-Ajo), who will miss the race.