The Italian crashed but ends Day 1 on top as Speed Up’s Lopez closes the gap to just 0.024s in FP2
Thanks to his 1:36.573 in Moto2™ FP1, Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) tops the standings on Friday at the Gran Premio Gryfyn di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini despite a crash in the closing stages of FP2. Alonso Lopez (+Ego Speed Up) is just 0.024s in arrears of Vietti’s time and rounding out the top three is wildcard Mattia Pasini (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) – the Italian also crashed in the afternoon session.
Lopez closes the gap to Vietti
With 20 minutes to go, Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Lopez and Albert Arenas (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) were the only riders who had improved their times inside the top 10, as the top five remained unchanged from FP1.
After finishing FP1 in P2, wildcard Pasini then had a small crash at Turn 4 with 15 minutes to go while still occupying second place, 0.095s off Vietti’s Friday morning pace. A few minutes later, the latter crashed unhurt at Turn 10 right in front of teammate Niccolo Antonelli, who did well to avoid both bike and rider.
Some improvements came in the final five minutes of the session, most notably Lopez moving up to P2 ahead of Pasini, with the top five covered by just 0.119s as Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) bettered their morning efforts.
The top 10 ahead of Saturday’s FP3
Fernandez ends Day 1 in P4 and is only 0.094s away from top spot, with Dixon P5 after his late time improvement. Sixth place Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) and seventh place Arenas both crashed unhurt while pushing for a better time, both the Spaniards are safely inside the provisional automatic Q2 places though, as are Chantra, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) in P8, P9 and P10 respectively.
Tune into Moto2™ FP3 at 10:55 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday morning to see who will be heading straight into Q2.
Top 10 combined:
1. Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) – 1:36.573
2. Alonso Lopez (+Ego Speed Up) + 0.024
3. Mattia Pasini (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) + 0.095
4. Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.097
5. Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) + 0.119
6. Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) + 0.205
7. Albert Arenas (Inde GASGAS Aspar…