Zarco Tops FP1

Jun 12, 2015
2 min read

Johann Zarco opened his weekend with the fastest time of the first free practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Ajo Motorsport rider posted a fastest lap of 1:46.941 – the only rider in the 1:46s. The Frenchman took to the top of the pile straight away and remained there for the entirety of the session, cementing his intentions to extend his championship lead this weekend. Zarco suffered a small scare late in the 45-minute session when he lost the front-end coming through turn nine. Luckily he managed to hang on to his bike and keep it from crashing into the gravel.

Sam Lowes had a rather troublesome session. The Speed Up rider encountered a mechanical issue as he left the pits for the start of FP1. He was able to get back out track and started setting quick time in the top five. Then, with 22-minutes of the session gone, he crashed at turn five. Another trip to the pits for repairs was required, but he once again returned to the track and went 2nd quickest with a 1:47.189.

Jonas Folger showed a possible return to form with the 3rd quickest time of the morning. The Qatar winner's season has somewhat curtailed since then, and after crashing out of the Italian race whilst running in 6th place, he desperately needs a result in Barcelona if he is to have any hope of fighting for the title. His AGR Kalex team-mate Axel Pons was 5th at the track he took his best ever Grand Prix result at after fighting his way from 20th to 8th.

Dominique Aegerter looked more comfortable with his Technomag Kalex this morning, buoyed by his Mugello podium, the Swiss rider will be looking to keep this pace up throughout the rest of the weekend.

Tom Luthi was 7th, with Takaaki Nakagami 8th, Lorenzo Baldassarri 9th and Xavier Simeon 10th.

Baldassarri suffered a big crash at turn nine in the closing stages of the session and was lucky to walk away uninjured. The Forward Racing Kalex rider was enjoying a productive morning up to that point having run as high as 2nd at one stage.

FP1 Top 10:

1st Johann Zarco, Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:46.941

2nd Sam Lowes, Speed Up Racing, 1:47.189

3rd Jonas Folger, AGR Team Kalex, 1:47.190

4th Tito Rabat, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:47.196

5th Axel Pons, AGR Team Kalex, 1:47.230

6th Dominique Aegerter, Technomag Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:47.283

7th Tom Luthi, Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:47. 343

8th Takaaki Nakagami, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex, 1:47.426

9th Lorenzo Baldassarri, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:47.491

10th Xavier Simeon, Federal Oil Gresini Team Moto2, 1:47.525

Full results can be found here: