American Racing Team’s Joe Roberts continues to lead the way in the Moto2™ class at the QNB Grand Prix of Qatar after nobody was able to better his new outright lap record set in Friday evening’s FP2. Fastest man in FP3, however, was intermediate class rookie Aron Canet (Aspar Team), who managed to jump inside the top five on the combined timesheets as a result.
In a session that saw only a handful of riders improve on their Friday pace, ten to be precise, Canet claimed top spot thanks to his 1:59.019, jumping from 14th to 5th on the combined Free Practice timesheets. Second fastest in FP3 was Beta Tools Speed Up’s Fabio Di Giannantonio who, despite only improving by two-tenths, leapt up the standings from 17th to 6th and, more importantly, secured himself a place in Q2.
???? @aroncanet44 with one of the strangest looking saves we've ever seen
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) March 7, 2020
The team see the funny side! ????#Moto2 | #QatarGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/MqKh3Wb5IY
Italtrans Racing’s Enea Bastianini ended up third fastest after also improving, meaning he remained inside the top 14 and, therefore, secured a place in Q2. However, the biggest drama came with the chequered flag out, when ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team’s Remy Gardner bounced back from a heavy highside in FP2 and another crash, this time at Turn 15, in the early stages of FP3 to bag a place in Q2 by jumping up to fourth quickest in FP3. The Australian found just a tenth on his Friday laptime but it was enough to move him up to eleventh on the combined standings.
The top three fastest riders across Free Practice remained unchanged, though, meaning it’s the American sensation Roberts that leads the Moto2™ charge into qualifying, with the SKY Racing Team VR46 duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini closely following him. Don’t miss the first intermediate class grid being set later today at 18:00 (GMT+3) local time in Qatar.
Top 10 combined:
1. Joe Roberts (American Racing Team) – 1:58.421
2. Marco Bezzecchi (SKY Racing Team VR46) + 0.248
3. Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) + 0.338
4. Tetsuta Nagashima (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.500
5. Aron Canet (Aspar Team) + 0.598
6. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Beta Tools Speed Up) + 0.631
7. Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta Racing) + 0.638
8. Enea Bastianini (Italtrans Racing Team) + 0.644
9. Augusto Fernandez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) + 0.653
10. Bo Bendsneyder (NTS RW Racing GP) + 0.668
Click here for the full results!