This year, five riders are making full Moto2 debuts: Joan Mir, Romano Fenati, Bo Bendsneyder and Jules Danilo arriving from Moto3 and Zulfahmi Khairuddin arriving from Supersport. Alongside them, we must add Joe Roberts and Federico Fuligni who have made replacements or wild cards in other years, but who have never raced a full season in the category, which is known to be difficult. How did they fare in Qatar?
It is clear that the margin is enormous between the other categories and Moto2, and that the more a rider has reached a high level in the past, the more likely he is to be in front. The two riders doing the best are, in fact, the vice champion and 3 Moto2017 world champion: Roman Fenati (Marinelli Snipers Team) and Joan mir (EG 0,0 Marc VDS).
In the combined times of the free sessions, they finished 10th and 13th. On the other hand, if in qualifying fenati achieved an incredible time allowing him to place in fifth position, Mir encountered more difficulties, finishing only 24th. Finally, in the race the situation was reversed again, as the Spaniard made a strong comeback to finish 11th and best rookie, while the Italian collapsed to finish 24th due to a tire problem. Both drivers nevertheless showed their potential, and should progress quickly if they continue at this pace. To note that Joan Mir finished 17 seconds behind his teammate Álex Márquez, which is not much for a very first race. It is impossible, however, to make a comparison for fenati who is the only driver on his team.
Behind them, Bo Bendsneyder (Tech 3 Racing) managed to stay in the top 20 by finishing 19th in combined times, qualifying 20th and finishing the race 18th, which is encouraging, especially since he only finished one just under three seconds behind his teammate Remy Gardner.
For others, it's more complicated. At the combined times of free sessions, Joe Roberts (NTS RW Racing GP) was 22nd, Jules Danilo (SAG Team) 29th, Zulfahmi Khairuddin (SIC Racing Team) 31st and Federico Fuligni (Tasca Racing Scuderia) 32nd and last. In qualifying the difficulty increased: the American qualified 27th, the French 29th, the Italian 31st and the Malaysian 32nd. Finally, they finished the race practically in the same places and one behind the other: Roberts 25nd, Danilo 27nd, Khairuddin 28th and Soots 29th out of 30 drivers who crossed the finish line.
Si Joe Roberts finishes 13,5 seconds behind his teammate Steven Odendaal, proving that he is not that far away, it is more complicated for Jules Danilo et Frederick Fuligni who finished thirty and fifty seconds behind their respective teammates, Isaac Viñales and Simone Corsi. Zulfahmi Khairuddin is, for his part, the only driver in his team.
These results clearly prove that it takes a certain time to adapt to the Moto2 category, and that depending on the equipment, the team and the rider, it can take more or less time. It will therefore be interesting to note everyone's progress between now and the summer break, something we will return to until then.
Note that these seven drivers are all on Kalex, except Bendsneyder which is on Tech 3 and Joe Roberts on NTS.
To be continued: the declarations of the rookies.
