Aragon GP race winner Jaume Masia returned to Motorland full of confidence as he concluded Friday’s Moto3 practice sessions fastest overall once again. Jeremy Alcoba and Romano Fenati joined the Leopard rider in the combined top-three while Britain’s John McPhee secured a provisional Q2 promotion after placing his Petronas machine 10th.
Raul Fernandez continued his typical run of Friday form by topping the timings early in the opening practice of the Teruel GP, holding fast against challenges from Niccolò Antonelli, Andrea Migno and Jaume Masia before the Sky rider rose to the top with 25’ to go. A strong second run saw Albert Arenas advance, sitting P2 on his eighth lap before setting the fastest time of the session so far, as the first rider to break into the 1’58’s, on his next attempt, over half a second clear of Romano Fenati behind.
McPhee circulated on the edge of the top-10 for the majority of the session before the fast laps of the final run began to register. Fenati flew to the top, besting Arenas by just 0.1 with Jeremy Alcoba and McPhee heading Masia in the top-five before the Leopard rider outsmarted the pack in the dying seconds, taking the session with a 1’58.076 from Fenati, Deniz Öncü, Arenas, and a newly-returned Tony Arbolino. McPhee concluded the morning effort in sixth ahead of Alcoba, Celestino Vietti, Gabriel Rodrigo and Tatsuki Suzuki, with Ai Ogura down in a disappointing 24th.
The afternoon began with an added delay for five riders due to slow riding offences during the Aragon GP qualifying sessions. Yuki Kunii was suspended from the first 10 minutes of FP2 due to a first offence in Q1 last-time-out, while Stefano Nepa, McPhee, Darryn Binder and Öncü all missed out on the first 15 minutes due to second offences during Q2.
On track, and it was Suzuki who took the early lead from Carlos Tatay before Ogura began to find his form, heading the field by half a second after the opening 10 minutes. Fernandez found a further half-second seven minutes later before improving again on his next revolution to control the times with a 1’58.220, two-tenths shy of the morning best with half the session still to go as Kaito Toba made his way into the top-three.
The late-session fired up as Alcoba, Salac and Rodrigo all found pace, claiming third to fifth respectively while McPhee also got his practice fully up-to-speed to join the top-nine after his early penalty.
With five minutes left the times remained down on the morning efforts, as five riders within the session’s top-12 still found themselves outside of the combined Q2 positions but a flurry of activity in the closing stages saw everything change.
Alcoba hit the top with a 1’58.080 to steal the session from Fernandez but Masia had four-thousands in hand to claim the honours overall. Rodrigo, Binder and Ogura claimed FP2’s top-five from McPhee in sixth, while the combined times saw the Scot in 10th. Provisional Q2 places were also secured by Fenati, Öncü, Arenas, Arbolino, Foggia, Salac and Suzuki with Vietti and Antonelli missing out and needing to push in Saturday morning’s final opportunity.
