Rapid Rins Top In FP1

Aug 7, 2015
2 min read

The Moto2 field dusted of their leathers and returned to business at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the opening intermediate class session of the weekend.

And it was Alex Rins who ended FP1 top after a stellar lap of 1:37.711 late in the day. The Paginas Amarillas rider usually takes a session to get up to speed but was on it from the word go, putting in a succession of fast laps. If he can keep this sort of pace up for the rest of the weekend then that maiden Moto2 win is sure to come his way on Sunday.

Jonas Folger got amongst the front runners in 2nd having languished on the cusp of the top ten for the opening half of the session. The AGR rider has 2 wins to his name this season, and though the title is out of reach the German will be keen to add to that.

Tito Rabat got off to a steady start, sitting in 11th for a time, before ramping up his pace in the latter stages of the 45-minutes. The Spaniard looked set to go fastest at the death, but lost time in the final sector and had to settle for 3rd. He'll be happy with that, however, as things could have ended up much, much worse. The Marc VDS rider had a huge moment exiting turn nine early in the session which saw him nearly thrown from his Kalex.

Dominique Aegerter and Mika Kallio completed the top five. Kallio's season hasn't panned out how he'd have hoped, but he'll be looking to salvage something this weekend at a track he won at so comfortably 12 months ago.

Sam Lowes was fastest for a time, but dropped to 6th by the chequered flag. Speed Up brought a new chassis to Germany and this hindered his weekend. Now that he's had time to get used to it there should be no such problems. This will be welcomed by the Brit who really needs a good result this weekend if he is to mount a serious charge for the title.

Something that will give him, and Tito Rabat, a glimmer of hope will be the lack of pace of leader Johann Zarco, who had a troubled session in 15th. With no obvious sign of mechanical issues, the Frenchman and the Ajo Motorsport team will need to get to the bottom of this mystifying loss of form in time for FP2.

FP1 Top 10:

1st Alex Rins, Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex, 1:37.711

2nd Jonas Folger, AGR Team Kalex, 1:37.781

3rd Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:37.873

4th Dominique Aegerter, Technomag Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:37.831

5th Mika Kallio, Italtrans Racing Team Kalex, 1:38.027

6th Sam Lowes, Speed Up Racing, 1:38.033

7th Hafizh Syahrin, Petronas Raceline Malaysia Kalex, 1:38.123

8th Franco Morbidelli, Italtrans Racing Team Kalex, 1:38.174

9th Takaaki Nakagami, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex, 1:38.234

10th Xavier Simeon, Federal Oil Gresini Team Moto2 Kalex, 1:38.247

Full results can be found here: http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2015/INP/Moto2/FP1/Session.pdf?v1_3627c37f