Chantra stuns and smashes the lap record on Friday

Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) charges to the top at the Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland as another Moto2™ lap record is shattered. The #35 set a 1:22.698 after a dominant display to end Friday quickest after spending most of Practice 1’s proceedings at the top. Meanwhile, Jake Dixon (CFMOTO Polarcube Aspar Team) made it a Kalex one-two at the top after finishing the day 0.351s adrift from Chantra’s new benchmark. Rounding out the top three at the end of Friday in Germany was Fermin Aldeguer (MB Conveyors SpeedUp). 

It was an extremely fast session with Chantra impressing from the off – topping the times early on. The #35’s time would stand heading into the final 10 minutes when time attacks started and Aldeguer hit the top for the first time this weekend. Chantra soon responded and entered the 1:22 bracket for the first time – shocking the field with a new lap record.

Behind in fourth was the impressive Bo Bendsneyder (Preicanos Racing Team), who set almost 20 laps on Friday afternoon and is in a prime spot heading into Saturday. Fantic Racing’s Aron Canet was back inside the top five, setting a 1:23.227 to place ahead of Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing Team) in sixth. However, there would be nothing separating the MT Helmets – MSI duo, with Sergio Garcia and Ai Ogura setting identical times to end their day ahead of Manuel Gonzalez (QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2™), who was down in ninth.

Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) pushed hard throughout the session, pulling off an unbelievable save at Turn 7. The Italian was ahead of compatriot Celestino Vietti (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in 11^th and ahead of Albert Arenas (QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2™). Meanwhile, the final spots inside the important top 14 went the way of CFMOTO Polarcube Aspar Team’s Izan Guevara and Alonso Lopez (MB Conveyors SpeedUp). They’re still some big names outside the top 14 including the returning OnlyFans American Racing Team’s Joe Roberts, as the American finished in P17 a week on from fracturing his right collarbone in Assen.

The Moto2™ field will return to track at 9:25 local time (UTC +2) on Saturday for Practice 2 before an exciting qualifying gets underway at 13:45 local time, so make sure you don’t miss any of the action on motogp.com!

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