David Almansa (Leopard Racing) is the Moto3™ pacesetter heading into Saturday’s action in Portugal after his 1:47.056 was good enough to see the Malaysian GP podium finisher beat the Malaysian GP winner, Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia), by 0.135s. A flurry of personal best lap times before the rain fell from Maximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) saw the newly crowned Rookie of the Year complete the top three.
A light shower heading into the final five minutes of Practice halted a lot of riders’ plans to improve in the closing stages, with the likes of 2025 podium finishers Matteo Bertelle (LEVELUP – MTA) and Guido Pini (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) ultimately missing the automatic Q2 cut.
There were no such problems for the returning Dennis Foggia (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) and Adrian Fernandez (Leopard Racing) though. The Italian and Spaniard round out Friday’s top five, with Joel Kelso (LEVELUP – MTA), Angel Piqueras (FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI) and Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) ending the day inside the top nine.
Three stand-in stars – Hakim Danish (FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI), Casey O’Gorman (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) and Brian Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo) – all made it into the top 14, as we now gear up for qualifying on Saturday in Portimao.