Moto2 Barcelona FP3: Sam Lowes drives the point home, Marcos Ramirez joins the dance

The first day of the Barcelona Grand Prix revealed two leaders. Sam Lowes in the morning, and Marcel Schrotter in the afternoon. But in terms of pure speed, it is the Englishman's time which is decisive, since FP2 took place in complicated conditions, mainly due to strong gusts of wind...

Luca marini is in total times the challenger of Sam Lowes, but the efforts of the German Schrotter during the afternoon were not in vain, since he is third. A nice progression for the German, only 12th in FP1. Fabio Di Giannantonio was gaining a position. Improvements which did not really suit Tetsuta Nagashima, Arón Canet and Marco Bezzecchi, pushed back to fifth, sixth and seventh places.

Xavi Virgo, Jorge Martín and Augusto Fernández complete the combined Top 10. Bo Bendsneyder with his NTS, Enea Bastianini, Nicolò Bulega and Jake Dixon are currently the last qualifiers.

What will this FP3 have in store for us, which is the last opportunity to enter directly into Q2, integrating the top 14 in the hierarchy? Before answering this question, here is the table which refreshes our memory:

Catalunya-Barcelona Moto2	2019	2020
FP1	1'44.673 Tom Lüthi	1'44.122 Sam Lowes
FP2	1'44.782 Augusto Fernandez	1'44.531 Marcel Schrotter
FP3	1'44.214 Jorge Navarro	1'43.523 Sam Lowes
Q1	1'44.662 Bo Bendsneyder
Q2	1'44.170 Augusto Fernandez
Warm Up	1'43.764 Alex Marquez
Course	Marquez, Lüthi, Navarro
All time lap record	1'43.474 Fabio Quartararo

The first information is the sanction that Remy gardner must serve on the starting grid. A place where he will have to give up six places.

It's 24° in the air and 30° on the track.

It's gone for 40 minutes.

kick of Canet in turn 3.

It is Bezzecchi which sets the reference time at the start of the session in 1.45.035s.

Quickly Schrotter went on the offensive by recovering this best time and achieved a 1.44.299s. It is taken over by Marini which sets a lap time of 1.44.265s. Next Gardner, Schrotter and Lowes. 

Perfect weather conditions today which brought down the times also due to the absence of wind.

kick of Luthi in turn 5.

After 10min, Martin regains control by setting a time of 1.43.853s. Alternately, Lowes made the effort in 1.43.818s then Marini in 1.43.765s which takes the reins of the session.

Navarro falls in the bend

The 14 provisional qualifiers for Q2 are: Marini, Lowes, Martin, Schrotter, Gardner, Fernandez, Pons, Di Giannantonio, Nagashima, Dixon, Bezzecchi, Ramirez, Corsi and Bastianini. The unqualified drivers have 23 minutes left to reverse the trend.

kick of Bezzecchi in turn 2.

kick of Baldassari in turn 2 for whom things are going from bad to worse.

kick of Manzi in turn 2.

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4 minutes from the goal, Lowes improves and takes the lead by achieving a lap time of 1.43.523s. He is ahead of Ramirez and Marini. Di Giannantonio and Martin bring up the rear of the top5

kick of bastianini in turn 2.

kick of Nagashima in the same turn.

Top14 for Q2: Lowes, Ramirez, Marini, Di Giannantonio, Martin, Schrotter, Bezzecchi, Gardner, Virginie, Fernandez, Bastianini, Pons, Luthi and Nagashima.

End of session and it's Lowes who finishes at the head of the troops in front Ramirez and Marini. Positions unchanged for Q2

Moto2 Barcelona FP3: times