Malaysia Practice Dominated by Kent

Oct 23, 2015
2 min read

Danny Kent dominated Friday Moto3 practice at Sepang despite a crash in the second session.

The British rider, who could be crowned Moto3 World Champion on Sunday, was fastest in the first session and the time of 2m13.715s was good enough to remain overall quickest even though Kent crashed at turn nine and was only fifth in FP2. Kent's one remaining title rival Miguel Oliveira was second quickest just under two tenths shy of the Brit but Olivieira has to finish ahead of Kent and outscore him by 15 points to keep the title alive to the season finale at Valencia next month.

After the sessions, Kent described his day to motogp.com: "Overall it was a good day. I think it was a great start into the weekend because it is always good to finish Friday on top or even amongst the fastest riders." Similarly, Oliveira was in confident mood after also performing well and he said to motogp.com: "The first day went pretty well. At this circuit the first day is always used for adaptation, because of the heat. In the afternoon we changed a lot on the bike compared to the morning and I liked those changes."

Romano Fenati ended the day third ahead of Jorge Navarro and Efren Vazquez. Brad Binder and Niccolo Antonelli were next on the timesheets just in front of the returning Hiroki Ono. The Japanese rider suffered injuries at his home race at Motegi two weeks ago and missed the last race at Phillip Island, but Ono returned with strong pace to be eighth overall. However, Ono did suffer a horrible looking highside at turn nine in the second session but luckily was unhurt. Isaac Vinales and Jakub Kornfeil completed the top 10 whilst only one second covered the top 13 riders in Friday practice.

Alessandro Tonucci crashed just a few moments after Ono in FP2 and was taken to the medical centre where he was later declared unfit to continue racing this weekend.

Moto3 Combined Practice Top10:

1st - Danny KENT, 2m13.715s

2nd - Miguel OLIVEIRA, 2m13.906s

3rd - Romano FENATI, 2m14.082s

4th - Jorge NAVARRO, 2m14.115s

5th - Efren VAZQUEZ, 2m14.184s

6th - Brad BINDER, 2m14.327s

7th - Niccolo ANTONELLI, 2m14.344s

8th - Hiroki ONO, 2m14.386s

9th - Isaac VINALES, 2m14.418s

10th - Jakub KORNFEIL, 2m14.419s.

Full combined Moto3 practice times available here.