Moto2 Valence-1 FP1: Tom Lüthi fastest despite a fall

It is as a strong man in the category that Sam Lowes arrives (Kalex, EG 0,0 Marc VDS) on the Valencia route. The Englishman indeed won his third Moto2 victory at MotorLand Aragón. It was the third victory of the season for Lowes, who ties Enea Bastianini (Kalex, Italtrans Racing Team) and Luca Marini (Kalex, SKY Racing Team VR46), his closest rivals for the title. He now leads the Moto2 championship for the first time since after the 2016 Italian Grand Prix.

Enea Bastianini finished third in Teruel, representing his seventh podium of the season, more than any other rider and a podium more than Lowes, which has six. Third in the championship, Luca marini finished 11th at the Teruel Grand Prix, which was his second worst result this season since the French Grand Prix. Losing momentum, he must get his act together this weekend or risk losing his chance of a coronation this year.

Topics of discussion also concern the weather, particularly bad yesterday above Cheste and expected to improve a little today. This morning, the track remains wet with temperatures of 19° in the air and 17° on the ground.

Lorenzo Baldassarri (Kalex, Flex – Box Pons HP 40) will celebrate its 24th anniversary on the opening day of this European Grand Prix. Before blowing out the candles and opening hostilities, here is the table which summarizes the facts hitherto known on the Ricardo Tormo route...

Valencia Europe Moto2™	2019	2020
FP1	1'35.699 Stefano Manzi	1'48.975 Tom Lüthi
FP2	1'34.622 Brad Binder
FP3	1'34.463 Brad Binder
Q1	1'34.873 Marcel Schrötter
Q2	1'34.461 Jorge Navarro
Warm up	1'35.062 Stefano Manzi
Course	Binder, Lüthi, Navarro
All time lap record	1'34.461 Jorge Navarro (2019)

When the track opens, it no longer rains and the drivers attack straight away to keep the temperature in their tires. In these conditions, we can reach around fifty degrees.

After a few minutes, Nicholas Bulega (Kalex, Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) finds himself at the top of the standings in 1'51.204 ahead Hafiz Syahrin (Speed ​​Up, Aspar team) rightly nicknamed El Pescao since he then took command in 1'50.642 then 1'50.066.

Not enough to impress a Brit like Sam Lowes which is 9 hundredths of a second…

After a quarter of an hour, the Malaysian from the Aspar team broke the 1'50 mark and established a 1'49.579 which is at least provisionally a benchmark.

Augusto Fernandez (Kalex, EG 0,0 Marc VDS) falls spectacularly at turn 14 but without apparent gravity.

Midway through the session, Héctor Garzó (Kalex, Flex – Box Pons HP 40) creates a surprise with a 1'49.103. The young Spaniard is progressing regularly this year and is starting to get noticed…

Conversely, it is the old veteran of Tom Luthi (Kalex, Liqui Moly Intact GP) who immediately takes the best for 49/1000. However, he ended up falling without seriousness at turn six.

At the start of the last 10 minutes, the times of Luca Marini (Kalex, Sky Racing Team VR46) are still extremely slow, more than eight seconds behind the leader! A psychological consequence of his fall at Le Mans?

Two minutes from the checkered flag, Hafizh Syahrin (Speed ​​Up, Aspar team) falls heavily and remains on the ground for a moment, while Somkiat Chantra (Kalex, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) also makes mistakes elsewhere on the circuit.

FP1 classification of the Moto2 European Grand Prix in Valencia:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com