It's back to Moto2 on the Termas de Rio Hondo track which, on Friday, designated two favorites. Mattia Pasini, the fastest in the morning then finally, overall, Alex Marquez, the fastest in the afternoon, did not falter in the land of tango and intend to celebrate their hundredth respective start in the best possible way. For the Italian veteran, this good 100 marks his number of takeoffs in Moto2 while the Spanish hundred celebrates all the Grand Prix starts of whose brother you know. So, for whom is this start on Saturday before the afternoon qualifiers?
Before launching into hostilities, here is the situation with our table…
|
#ArgentinaGP Moto2 |
2017 |
2018 |
| FP1 |
1'44.943 Lorenzo Baldassarri |
1'44.461 Mattia Pasini |
| FP2 |
1'44.188 Franco Morbidelli |
1'44.802 Alex Marquez |
| FP3 |
1'46.100 Lorenzo Baldassarri |
|
| Qualification |
1'45.616 Miguel Oliveira |
|
| Warm Up |
1'43.154 Miguel Oliveira |
|
| Course |
Morbidelli, Oliveira, Lüthi |
|
| All time lap record |
1'42.809 Johann Zarco 2015 |
18° in the air, a track at less than 20°, but above all with patches of humidity which refuse to disappear quickly, these are the conditions that the protagonists in the intermediate category face at the start of the exercise.
# Moto2 head out for their FP3 session and the track still isn't fully dry 🙃#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/OTR5YBpGej
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018
In 2.00.897, it's Olive tree who sets the tone with his KTM in front of the other Austrian machine from Sam Lowes. Qatar duelists follow bagnaia et Baldassarri. But all this happened a little over 16s from Friday times, accomplished on dry asphalt.
Sam Lowes don't wait until ten minutes are up to make a mistake in turn 13. Meanwhile, Gardner places its Mistral610 in second place, only ten thousandths behind the official Portuguese of the Austrian brand. Who, we remind you, took pole position on this track last year.
That's one way to head into pit lane…😉#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/ZT9cnEbodl
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018
At the end of the first quarter of an hour, it was the Tech3 team with its Australian from a good family who led the way thanks to a performance in 1'59.635. It is followed below the 2.00 mark by Baldassarri.
A quarter of an hour from the goal, the rain threatens but holds back while Lowes takes the lead in 1'59.439, ahead of Pasini. The two men therefore burn out politeness Gardner. But the latter returned the favor in 1'58.737. At the same time, lecuona passes in front of his teammate Lowes and points out as the best KTM representative.
In view of the checkered flag, we can no longer hold Remy Gardner who lines up the best tricks. His 1'58.332 pushes back Lowes more than five tenths and Baldassarri more than six tenths. But we feel that the second knives have sharpened their blade to cut down the usual favorites...
Lowes fell a second time at turn 13 when the checkered flag saluted the great performance of Gardner on the Mistral610 of the Tech3 team. Baldassarri follows as Olive tree, Pasini, lecuona, Brad Binder, Sam lowes and Alex Marquez.
Mir et NAVARRO close the top 10. Quarterly is twentieth and Danilo twenty-ninth.
# Moto2 FP3 🏁@GardnerRemy demonstrates his skills in the tricky conditions to top the times ahead of qualifying #ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/gYjO6GblRG
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018
Moto2 Argentina FP3: Chronos
| 1 | 87 | Remy GARDNER | Tech 3 | 1'57.379 | |||
| 2 | 7 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Kalex | 1'57.449 | 0.070 / 0.070 | ||
| 3 | 44 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | KTM | 1'57.880 | 0.501 / 0.431 | ||
| 4 | 54 | Matthias PASINI | Kalex | 1'58.002 | 0.623 / 0.122 | ||
| 5 | 27 | Iker LECUONA | KTM | 1'58.103 | 0.724 / 0.101 | ||
| 6 | 41 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 1'58.571 | 1.192 / 0.468 | ||
| 7 | 22 | Sam LOWES | KTM | 1'58.647 | 1.268 / 0.076 | ||
| 8 | 73 | Alex MARQUEZ | Kalex | 1'58.791 | 1.412 / 0.144 | ||
| 9 | 36 | Joan Mir | Kalex | 1'58.865 | 1.486 / 0.074 | ||
| 10 | 9 | Jorge NAVARRO | Kalex | 1'58.906 | 1.527 / 0.041 | ||
| 11 | 32 | Isaac VIÑALES | Kalex | 1'58.953 | 1.574 / 0.047 | ||
| 12 | 16 | Joe ROBERTS | NTS | 1'59.172 | 1.793 / 0.219 | ||
| 13 | 52 | Danny Kent | Speed Up | 1'59.219 | 1.840 / 0.047 | ||
| 14 | 40 | Hector BARBERA | Kalex | 1'59.222 | 1.843 / 0.003 | ||
| 15 | 77 | Dominique AEGERTER | KTM | 1'59.466 | 2.087 / 0.244 | ||
| 16 | 10 | Luca MARINI | Kalex | 1'59.648 | 2.269 / 0.182 | ||
| 17 | 5 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Kalex | 1'59.813 | 2.434 / 0.165 | ||
| 18 | 45 | Tetsuit NAGASHIMA | Kalex | 1'59.886 | 2.507 / 0.073 | ||
| 19 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | Tech 3 | 1'59.986 | 2.607 / 0.100 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Speed Up | 2'00.174 | 2.795 / 0.188 | ||
| 21 | 42 | Francesco Bagnaia | Kalex | 2'00.235 | 2.856 / 0.061 | ||
| 22 | 4 | Steven ODENDAAL | NTS | 2'00.453 | 3.074 / 0.218 | ||
| 23 | 89 | Khairul Idham PAWI | Kalex | 2'00.525 | 3.146 / 0.072 | ||
| 24 | 51 | Eric GRANADO | Suter | 2'00.614 | 3.235 / 0.089 | ||
| 25 | 97 | Xavi VIRGIN | Kalex | 2'00.659 | 3.280 / 0.045 | ||
| 26 | 23 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Kalex | 2'00.732 | 3.353 / 0.073 | ||
| 27 | 24 | Simone COURSES | Kalex | 2'00.791 | 3.412 / 0.059 | ||
| 28 | 13 | Roman FENATI | Kalex | 2'01.171 | 3.792 / 0.380 | ||
| 29 | 95 | Jules DANILO | Kalex | 2'01.315 | 3.936 / 0.144 | ||
| 30 | 62 | Stefano MANZI | Suter | 2'01.982 | 4.603 / 0.667 | ||
| 31 | 63 | Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN | Kalex | 2'02.900 | 5.521 / 0.918 | ||
| 32 | 21 | Federico FULIGNI | Kalex | 2'04.148 | 6.769 / 1.248 | ||
