Moto 3
Published on May 17, 2019 at 14:06 PM by André Cazeneuve

French Grand Prix, Le Mans, Moto3, FP2: Ogura the fastest ahead of Antonelli

This morning it was the Argentinian driver, Gabriel Rodrigo of the Gresini team, on the Honda, who set the tone during the first free practice session by setting the best time (142.954s). He thus beat Tony Arbolino and Lorenzo Dalla Porta, the two Honda drivers. Romano Fenati ranked nineteenth, the latter starting to worry given his repeated poor performances. The championship leaders, Arón Canet on the KTM ranked eighteenth, Jaume Masiá sixteenth and Niccolò Antonelli twenty-second. 

 

Le Mans Moto3™

 2018

2019
FP1 1'43.114 Jorge Martin 1'42.954 Gabriel Rodrigo
FP2 1'42.596 Niccolò Antonelli 1'42.263 Ai Ogura
FP3 1'42.111 Marcos Ramirez
Q1

XXX
Q2 1'42.039 Jorge Martin
warm up 1'42.530 Enea Bastianini
Course Arenas, Migno, Ramirez
All time lap record 1'41.754 Martin (2018)

 

It's 20,5 degrees in the air and 35,5 degrees on the track. The sky is somewhat cloudy, the sun has left the Sarthois sky.

 

It was Binder who set the reference time in 1.43.163s at the start of the second session. Suzuki and Arbolino followed suit, placing themselves second and third. The Japanese driver gained 7 tenths on the reference time and took first position (1.42.488s). Binder made a mistake in turn 12, which also brought gravel onto the track.

Rossi in turn fell in turn 7. In front of Suzuki, the Honda driver held the line, he was followed by his teammate Antonelli and Toba. Garcia fell in turn 12, a fall visibly caused by the gravel left on the track by Binder's fall. And it continues, Canet takes his turn, biting the dust with the KTM, in turn 14.

Perez takes his turn, in turn 7. Antonelli in turn falls in turn 7. There are 22 minutes left before the checkered flag and already six drivers have fallen since the start of the session. Dalla Porta also fell in turn 12 as well as Fenati who fell at high speed in turn 9, no injury however for the Honda driver. The latter had just achieved the second best time in 1.42.835s. He is taken over by Toba who improves his time to 1.42.797s.

Obviously the conditions on the track are changing, particularly on certain parts located in a straight line. Suzuki takes control of the session ahead of Toba and Fenati. Antonelli and Masiá close the top5. Ogura took the second best time by setting a time of 1.42.488s. For the moment, three Japanese occupy the top of the ranking.

Fenati goes to the clinic following his fall to have a check-up. McPhee crashes in turn 8. Arbolino improves his time (1.42.765s) and comes third behind Ogura. Canet made the effort and achieved the fourth best time, he clocked 1.42.703s. Masiá falls in turn 10, he leaves the track on a stretcher. he was thrown off course by his machine. Dalla Porta also falls, no injury for the Leopard team driver.

It was Ai Ogura who set the best time of the session (1.42.147s) ahead of Antonelli and Suzuki.

French Grand Prix Le Mans Moto3 FP2: times

1 79 To OGURA Honda 1'42.147
2 23 Niccolo ANTONELLI Honda 1'42.263 0.116 0.116
3 24 Tatsuki SUZUKI Honda 1'42.460 0.313 0.197
4 16 Andrea MIGNO KTM 1'42.465 0.318 0.005
5 75 Albert Arenas KTM 1'42.482 0.335 0.017
6 14 Tony ARBOLINO Honda 1'42.493 0.346 0.011
7 44 Arón CANET KTM 1'42.508 0.361 0.015
8 19 Gabriel RODRIGO Honda 1'42.554 0.407 0.046
9 25 Raúl FERNÁNDEZ KTM 1'42.620 0.473 0.066
10 7 Dennis FOGGIA KTM 1'42.686 0.539 0.066
11 22 Kazuki MASAKI KTM 1'42.688 0.541 0.002
12 48 Lorenzo FROM THE DOOR Honda 1'42.691 0.544 0.003
13 27 Kaito TOBA Honda 1'42.797 0.650 0.106
14 55 Roman FENATI Honda 1'42.835 0.688 0.038
15 71 Ayumu SASAKI Honda 1'42.919 0.772 0.084
16 5 Jaume MASIÁ KTM 1'42.934 0.787 0.015
17 42 Marcos RAMIREZ Honda 1'42.940 0.793 0.006
18 12 Philip SALAC KTM 1'43.005 0.858 0.065
19 40 Darryn BINDER KTM 1'43.060 0.913 0.055
20 17 John MCPHEE Honda 1'43.084 0.937 0.024
21 13 Celestino VIETTI KTM 1'43.134 0.987 0.050
22 21 Alonso LÓPEZ Honda 1'43.172 1.025 0.038
23 84 Jakub KORNFEIL KTM 1'43.212 1.065 0.040
24 11 Sergio GARCIA Honda 1'43.389 1.242 0.177
25 77 Vicente PEREZ KTM 1'43.411 1.264 0.022
26 54 Riccardo ROSSI Honda 1'43.459 1.312 0.048
27 76 Makar YURCHENKO KTM 1'43.557 1.410 0.098
28 61 Can ÖNCÜ KTM 1'44.039 1.892 0.482
29 69 Tom BOOTH-AMOS KTM 1'44.374 2.227 0.335