Rookie Rins Steals Friday Limelight
- Oct 16, 2015
- 2 min read
Alex Rins snatched the fastest Moto2 practice time ahead of the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island with a late effort to edge out Lowes.
British rider Sam Lowes had set the fastest time in the rain-affected first session and looked likely to remain fastest overall on Friday until a last gasp lap from Rins saw him take top spot on the timesheets with a lap of 1m33.106s. The second session took place in ideal conditions with track temperatures increasing to 36 degrees Celsius and meant that riders could improve their times substantially from FP1.
Lowes was frustrated despite being predominantly the quickest on Friday as confusion with his team meant the British rider was not able to return to the track with a fresh tyre at the end of the session to try to improve his own time. Lorenzo Baldassarri was a stunning third on the combined times as the Italian continues to recover from his injuries in the middle of the season and only two tenths shy of Rins.
Takaaki Nakagami was fourth, Jonas Folger fifth and Sandro Cortese followed up his podium last weekend at Motegi to be sixth at the end of the day just ahead of Thomas Luthi and Mika Kallio. Newly crowned Moto2 World Champion Johann Zarco was only ninth overall but expect an increase in performance on Saturday as the Frenchman normally focusses on race pace on Friday. Malaysian rider Hafizh Syah completed the top 10.
Outgoing 2014 Moto2 Champion Tito Rabat was back but continued to participate with a broken radius in his left arm after he withdrew from the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend. However, Rabat suffered a crash at turn 11 in FP2 and was taken to the Medical Centre. Fortunately, tests on Rabat showed no further injuries had been sustained but his team will decide on Saturday if he should continue to race this weekend.
Moto2 Combined Friday Practice Top 10:
1st - Alex RINS, 1m33.106s
2nd - Sam LOWES, 1m33.152s
3rd - Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, 1m33.305s
4th - Takaaki NAKAGAMI, 1m33.371s
5th - Jonas FOLGER, 1m33.418s
6th - Sandro CORTESE, 1m33.511s
7th - Thomas LUTHI, 1m33.534s
8th - Mika KALLIO, 1m33.556s
9th - Johann ZARCO, 1m33.590s
10th - Hafizh SYAHRIN, 1m33.618s.
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