Moto3 Valencia FP2: the Leopard team unleashes its beasts with Suzuki and Foggia

Izan Guevara (GasGas) was the fastest during the first free practice session of the Moto3 class of the Valencian Community Grand Prix, 20th and final stage of the 2022 World Championship. On the Valencia track which bears the name by Ricardo Tormo, the new world champion driver of the Aspar team, set the best lap in 1'39.553. Behind him, at 0.010s and 0.150s were Diogo Moreira (KTM MT Helmets -MSI) and Daniel Holgado (KTM Red Bull Ajo).

Japanese Ayumu Sasaki on Max Racing Team's Husqvarna is fourth, ahead of the Turk Deniz Oncu (KTM Tech 3) and Dennis Foggia, Honda Leopard. The Sepang winner John mcphee (Husqvarna Max Racing Team), Sergio Garcia (GasGas Aspar), Ryusei Yamanaka (KTM MT Helmets -MSI) and Xavier Artigas (CFMoto PruestelGP) close the Top Ten.

Kaito Toba (KTM CIP), Riccardo Rossi (Honda SIC58 Squadra Corse), Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda Leopard) and the wild card Filippo Farioli also qualified for provisional Q2.

This summary done, what will this FP2 of the Valencia Grand Prix Moto3 version have in store for us? Before you know it, here is the table that summarizes the facts known so far.

Moto3 ™ Valencia	2021	2022
FP1	1'39.561 Izan Guevara	1'39.533 Izan Guevara
FP2	1'41.524 Dennis Foggia	1'39.467 Tatsuki Suzuki
FP3	1'39.256 Deniz Öncü
Q1	1'39.159 Niccolo Antonelli
Q2	1'38.668 Pedro Acosta
Warm Up	1'39.915 Pedro Acosta
Course	Artigas, Garcia, Masia (See here)
All time lap record	1'38.286 Darryn Binder 2020

Before the start of hostilities the echo of morning events can be heard in this early afternoon…

24° in the air and 36.7° on the track are the conditions offered to pilots for these 40 minutes of exercise. The wind gusts up to 24 km/h.

The first reference goes to Sasaki in 1'40.217. Surrah fall at turn 14. McPhee, after 10 minutes he placed second to his teammate in Husqvarna colors. A dolphin position that he then takes Artigas on CFMoto.

Red et Almansa, then fourth, find themselves in the same gravel trap, then Farioli fall. For the moment, after 15 minutes, no driver has beaten the times of the FP1. It will be recalled that the chief engineer ofAlmansa is a certain Ramon Forcada...

Halfway through the session, Foggia takes second place, more than three tenths behind the currently untouchable Sasaki. Munoz fall at the now famous turn 14 as the last quarter of an hour begins. Dennis Foggia raises the tone and takes control in 1'40.057. Guevara follows.

Foggia grows again in 1'39.862, and Guevara still pursuing it, reaching me below the 1'40 per lap mark. Almost all the drivers return to their boxes for the last five minutes. For the moment it is still the FP1 times which are the reference.

As expected, the last minutes are intense. Garcia thus takes the lead with a 1'39.627. But this is just a warning shot. Suzuki proves it with his 1'39.467 which provisionally gives him the best performance of the day. Sasaki falls at turn 6 in the last minute. Under the checkered flag, Suzuki keep the advantage ahead Foggia at 21 thousandths, Tatay, Garcia et Salvador. Fellon is 23th.

Results of FP2 of the Moto3 Grand Prix of the Valencian Community on the Ricardo Tormo circuit:

 Credit Ranking: motogp.com