Lowes Fastest In Opening Moto2 Session
- Jul 10, 2015
- 2 min read
Sam Lowes ended the opening free practice session for the Moto2 field fastest having topped the time sheets with a lap of 1:25.027 right at the end of the 45-minutes. The Speed Up rider, running a new livery this weekend, went to the top of the screens fairly early on and posted some very consistent sets of laps as he aims for his second Grand Prix victory of the season after returning to the rostrum last time out in Holland.
The surprise 2nd placed man Takaaki Nakagami made, what looks like anyway, a welcome return to form having sat atop the time sheets for a short while in that session. We've seen flashes of speed this year from the Japanese rider but nothing quite like this. He was just a few hundredths off of top spot with a 1:25.067.
Johann Zarco completed the top three, with Tito Rabat close behind in 4th making for a similar picture to what we saw early season. Rabat's session was mightily impressive given that he broke his collarbone in five places just six days ago and is riding without painkillers. More worryingly for his competitors is that he nearly completed a full race distance in practice.
Simone Corsi completed the top five for the Forward Racing team on a 1:25.318.
Home favourite Jonas Folger would love to secure his third win of the season in front oh his countryman this weekend. The German looks in decent form after setting the 6th fastest time of the morning – a 1:25.323.
Tom Luthi was 7th, with last year's winner Dominique Aegerter 8th, Axel Pons 9th and Anthony West 10th.
Pons was involved in an incident early on with Luis Salom. Whilst under braking for the final corner the Spaniard ran in too hot and clattered into the back of the Paginas Amarillas rider. Both were lucky to walk away unscathed, but Pons may be taking a trip up to race direction as a result. Xavier Simeon and Florian Alt both had crashes too, but both were unhurt.
FP1 Top 10:
1st Sam Lowes, Speed Up Racing, 1:25.027
2nd Takaaki Nakagami, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex, 1:25.067
3rd Johann Zarco, Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:25.176
4th Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:25.195
5th Simone Corsi, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:25.318
6th Jonas Folger, AGR Team Kalex, 1:25.323
7th Tom Luthi, Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:25.370
8th Dominique Aegerter, Technomag Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:25.452
9th Axel Pons, AGR Team Kalex, 1:25.506
10th Ant West, QMMF Racing Team Speed Up, 1:25.575
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