Britain’s Sam Lowes ended the two-day Moto2 test at Jerez in the driving seat, posting a 1’42.432 to end ahead of Takaaki Nakagami and class returnee Danny Kent, who was third.
A total of nine riders, seven from the Moto2 class and two from the Moto3 class, took to the Jerez circuit for three days of testing. Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) had set the pace on Thursday but it was Lowes (Federal Oil Gresin) who led on Friday as he continued to learn the Kalex. A time of 1’42.432 secured the Brit the top spot on Friday, improving by a tenth from his best time of Thursday.
“I’m really impressed by the team and the bike! From the first moment I felt that the potential is very high and I’m satisfied with the work done in these two days, in which I did a lot of laps, a record for me! I have tried many things on the bike, mostly to get acquainted to it and to understand how it reacts to the set-up changes. It was a great start, the guys from the team are fantastic and I could not be happier," said Lowes.
Behind Lowes by just over a tenth was Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) with Kent (Leopard Racing Kalex) setting the third fastest time with 1’42.565.
In fourth was Luis Salom (SAG) followed by Moto2 rookie and Kent’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira (Leopard Racing) and Jesko Raffin (SAG). Isaac Viñales (Tech 3) set a 1’44.834 to end Friday in seventh as he learns the Mistral 610 Moto2 machine.
