Morbidelli Dark Horse For Qualifying
- Jul 11, 2015
- 2 min read
Franco Morbidelli heads into qualifying later today as the surprise man to beat after topping the time sheets in free practice three and completing the fastest ever lap of the Sachsenring on a Moto2 bike. The Italian guided his Italtrans Kalex to a 1:24.336 late in the session and has now put himself on the radar for pole position this afternoon.
Johann Zarco led for much of the session having set a fast lap early on in the 45-minutes as so he could focus on a race simulation. His best time of 1:24.559 and his very consistent pace will have a few worried as the weekend progresses. Tito Rabat completed the top three after completing 28 laps of the 2.28-mile circuit, despite riding injured.
His team-mate did not fair so well. Alex Marquez crashed at turn twelve with 30-minutes still on the clock. He was able to get his Marc VDS Kalex back to the pits for repairs, but the Spaniard crashed again in the final minutes of the session. He suffered a nasty high-side coming out of turn four and was lucky to get away unharmed. Languishing outside the top 20 as qualifying looms, Marquez' confidence will have take a sever knock.
As will have Sam Lowes'. The Speed Up rider was fastest coming into this morning's session, but was off the pace in FP3 and ended up 13th with a 1:25.125. 0.7 off of the top pace, the Briton needs to dig deep in qualifying and with set-up prior to if he is to salvage a decent grid slot for tomorrow's 29-lap Grand Prix. Just to add to his woes, he crashed at turn one in the final quarter of the session.
Xavier Simeon has looked strong all weekend and continued to display decent form in 4th, with Simone Corsi rounding out the top five.
Hafizh Syahrin put in a stunning last-gasp lap at the end of the session to lift himself up into 7th spot. The Petronas Race Malaysia rider has shown flashes of speed this year, and a good qualifying today will put him in good stead for a very strong result indeed.
Julian Simon, Randy Krummenacher and Lorenzo Baldassarri completed the top ten.
FP3 Top 10:
1st Franco Morbidelli, Italtrans Racing Team Kalex, 1:24.336
2nd Johann Zarco, Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:24.559
3rd Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:24.827
4th Xavier Simeon, Federal Oil Gresini Team Moto2 Kalex, 1:24.872
5th Simone Corsi, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:24.887
6th Mika Kallio, Italtrans Racing Team Kalex, 1:24.919
7th Hafizh Syahrin, Petronas Raceline Malaysia Kalex, 1:24.961
8th Julian Simon, QMMF Racing Team Speed Up, 1:24.987
9th Randy Krummenacher, JiR Racing Team Moto2 Kalex, 1:24.993
10th Tom Luthi, Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:25.049
Full results can be found here:
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