Zarco edges out Lowes in FP1

Aug 28, 2015
2 min read

Championship leader Johann Zarco narrowly beat home favourite Sam Lowes to top FP1 at the end of the session by just 0.016 seconds.

Throughout the session it was close between the top 20 riders and were covered by just over a second but in the final 10 minutes the fight became private for top spot between Zarco and Lowes. The riders exchanged blows with Zarco first going quicker but immediately usurped by Lowes. This happened twice more until the chequered flag flew. Then on the last lap each Zarco stole top spot with a 2m08.461s lap and Lowes was just 0.016s slower on his final lap.

Earlier in the session, Zarco was involved in another battle with Rins and Nakagami as the three riders exchanged fastest lap times but Rins remained on top at the mid-point of the session as Rabat had his fastest time removed for exceeding track limits.

Elsewhere, Jonas Folger was another rider to leave it late as he snatched third place from defending champion Tito Rabat. Both riders were four tenths adrift of the top two whilst Rabat (like rival Zarco) had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Club earlier in the session. Lorenzo Baldassari finished an impressive fifth ahead of Rins, Cortese, Simon, Nakagami and Luthi completing the top 10. Aside from the top two riders, 3rd to 20th were covered by just one second.

Moto2 FP1 Top 10:

1st - Johann ZARCO, 2m08.461s

2nd - Sam LOWES, 2m08.477s

3rd - Jonas FOLGER, 2m08.920s

4th - Tito RABAT, 2m08.932s

5th - Lorenzo BALADASSARRI, 2m08.991s

6th - Alex RINS, 2m08.993s

7th - Sandro CORTESE, 2m09.031s

8th - Julian SIMON, 2m09.033s

9th - Takaaki NAKAGAMI, 2m09.064s

10th - Thomas LUTHI, 2m09.158s.

Full Moto2 FP1 Result available here: