Riders in the Moto2™ World Championship were fortunate enough to have both their sessions held under relatively clear skies on Friday at the Motul TT Assen. This gave the riders a full day to work on the setup of their machines, the Moto2™ riders seeing some of the smallest improvements in times between the two sessions.
Tom Luthi (Garage Plus Interwetten) ended as the fastest rider of the day, the lone rider able to drop into the 1’37s. He arrives in Assen after testing the KTM MotoGP™ machine in Mugello, the change of bikes not hurting him at all. Currently fourth in the championship. Luthi is 23 points off the lead and needs to start finishing on the podium rather than just finishing races to keep a challenge alive. As one of the more experienced riders in the class, he certainly has the knowledge needed to win in Assen be it wet or dry.
After topping Free Practice 1, Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) was again strong as he improved to a 1’38.229 to end in second. Nakagami’s session came to an early end at Turn 1 when he fell with three minutes of the session left, the front of his bike chattering about before the fall. He was unharmed and his team will have plenty of time to repair the bike before Free Practice 3.
Championship contender Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) completed a 1’38.320 lap to end 0.358s off Luthi. He was the only rider in the top three of the championship to end in the top five, both his rivals encountering slight hiccups in the session.
Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) was a faller during the session, coming off at Turn 15. He was separated from his bike, as was his fuel tank. Before his crash he managed to set the fourth fastest time of the session and the day overall. His teammate, Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) was right behind him in fifth.
Caption competition! @alexmarquez73 whisks away his fuel tank after crashing...
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Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) missed out on the top five by the narrowest of margins, only 0.001s. Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Team) and Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP) all managed to end inside the top ten.
Championship leader Rins tucked the front at Turn 4, harmlessly sliding off. With over 11 minutes of the session left he was able to get back out on track after a fantastic repair job by his team.