Phillip Island Moto2: Espargaro Leads Friday

2012 Phillip Island Moto2 Friday Practice Results

After a second Moto2 free practice session that was cut short by rain at the AirAsia Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Tuenti Movil HP 40’s Pol Espargaró topped the day’s timesheets ahead of Scott Redding and Tom Lüthi.

Espargaró was instantly on the pace in the second session, not taking long to post his fastest time of 1.34’578, the fastest of the day, before ominous clouds arrived with 20 minutes left and dumped a hefty spot of rain on the circuit.

And with many riders still doing set-up work and not focussing on outright lap times until the end, this meant that Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding retained second spot in the combined timesheets, despite only finishing in eighth in FP2. Interwetten-Paddock’s Tom Lüthi and Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio finished behind the Brit, also thanks to their times from the morning.

QMMF Racing’s Anthony West, fresh from his first-ever podium in Moto2 in Malaysia last weekend, ended the day in fifth, despite setting the third quickest time of the afternoon, ousting Kiefer Racing’s Mike Di Meglio into sixth.

Seventh spot went to potential championship winner this weekend, Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol’s Marc Márquez, with the Spaniard’s team fortunate to have resolved an electrical issue, which stopped him from setting a time in the morning. Speed Master’s Andrea Iannone, who despite not looking like his usual self, set the eighth quickest time of the day with a quick run in the afternoon, with GP Team Switzerland’s Randy Krummenacher making a welcome return from injury in ninth.

Completing the top 10 was last race winner Alex de Angelis on his NGM Mobile Forward Racing machine, after the San Marino rider improved marginally in the afternoon. Tech 3 Racing’s Xavier Siméon suffered engine problems early on in the second session, while Arguiñano Racing Team’s Ricky Cardús crashed in both sessions, fortunately walking away unscathed. Following the rain, some riders went out on track to check conditions with wet tyres, yet no hot-laps were set, with not much data to be gathered.

2012 Phillip Island Moto2 Free Practice 2 Results:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	40	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	280.6	1’34.578
2	12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	Interwetten-Paddock	Suter	280.8	1’35.507	0.929 / 0.929
3	95	Anthony WEST	AUS	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	280.7	1’35.553	0.975 / 0.046
4	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol	Suter	282.6	1’35.703	1.125 / 0.150
5	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Speed Master	Speed Up	279.8	1’35.769	1.191 / 0.066
6	4	Randy KRUMMENACHER	SWI	GP Team Switzerland	Kalex	282.7	1’35.770	1.192 / 0.001
7	15	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR	279.3	1’35.833	1.255 / 0.063
8	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	277.1	1’35.862	1.284 / 0.029
9	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	280.1	1’35.963	1.385 / 0.101
10	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	279.1	1’35.986	1.408 / 0.023
11	60	Julian SIMON	SPA	Blusens Avintia	Suter	278.1	1’36.051	1.473 / 0.065
12	19	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	271.7	1’36.089	1.511 / 0.038
13	77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	Technomag-CIP	Suter	278.2	1’36.177	1.599 / 0.088
14	3	Simone CORSI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	FTR	280.6	1’36.349	1.771 / 0.172
15	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	277.0	1’36.498	1.920 / 0.149
16	80	Esteve RABAT	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	279.8	1’36.585	2.007 / 0.087
17	36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	283.5	1’36.600	2.022 / 0.015
18	63	Mike DI MEGLIO	FRA	Kiefer Racing	Kalex	277.6	1’36.790	2.212 / 0.190
19	8	Gino REA	GBR	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Suter	276.3	1’36.884	2.306 / 0.094
20	24	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	283.4	1’37.087	2.509 / 0.203
21	88	Ricard CARDUS	SPA	Arguiñano Racing Team	AJR	273.6	1’37.100	2.522 / 0.013
22	14	Ratthapark WILAIROT	THA	Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2	Suter	276.2	1’37.228	2.650 / 0.128
23	49	Axel PONS	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	274.0	1’37.231	2.653 / 0.003
24	23	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Desguaces La Torre SAG	Bimota	272.0	1’37.283	2.705 / 0.052
25	81	Jordi TORRES	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	Suter	277.1	1’37.628	3.050 / 0.345
26	72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	JPN	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR	276.6	1’38.112	3.534 / 0.484
27	18	Nicolas TEROL	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	Suter	280.3	1’38.157	3.579 / 0.045
28	10	Marco COLANDREA	SWI	SAG Team	FTR	274.4	1’38.767	4.189 / 0.610
29	22	Alessandro ANDREOZZI	ITA	S/Master Speed Up	Speed Up	277.4	1’38.773	4.195 / 0.006
30	75	Tomoyoshi KOYAMA	JPN	Technomag-CIP	Suter	278.8	1’39.706	5.128 / 0.933
31	82	Elena ROSELL	SPA	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	275.7	1’40.811	6.233 / 1.105
	57	Eric GRANADO	BRA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	268.2	1’41.428	6.850 / 0.617