Under a beautiful sun, but with a fairly cool air background, Juanfran Guevara was the fastest in the first free session ahead of Rodrigo and Binder, while Fabio Quartararo finished a good fourth.
|
Valencia Moto3 |
2015 |
2016 |
| FP1 | 1'39.930 Danny Kent | 1'40.333 Juanfran Guevara |
| FP2 | 1'40.027 Efren Vazquez | |
| FP3 | 1'39.293 Miguel Oliveira | |
| Qualification | 1'39.364 John McPhee | |
| Warm Up | 1'40.086 Niccolo Antonelli | |
| Course | Oliveira Navarro Kornfeil | |
| All time lap record | 1'39.068 Jack Miller 2014 |
The temperature was rather cool in this first session, with 6° for the ambient air and 7° for the track. Warming up the tires was not going to be easy. We were preparing to follow with interest two battles this weekend: the one between Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Navarro for third place, separated by 2 points, and the one determining the Rookie of the year, contested by Nicolo Bulega, Joan Mir and Fabio di Giannantonio, separated by only 6 points. Among the French riders, Fabio Quartararo and Jules Danilo were joined by Enzo Boulom, wild card here in Valencia, and permanently entered next year in the Moto3 world. Many riders were competing in their last Moto3 Grand Prix, such as 2016 World Champion Brad Binder, but also Francesco Bagnaia who – the icing on the cake – will be testing one of the Aspar team's Ducatis next week.
Albert Arenas was the first of the morning to experience a big problem with a gigantic plume of smoke escaping from the engine of his Peugeot. His teammate of the day Vicente Perez fell without seriousness. When the drivers returned to the pits for the first time after 20 minutes, Joan Mir led in 1'41.1, 0.1 ahead of Quartararo, and 0.3 ahead of Andrea Migno and Enea Bastianini. Jorge Navarro fell heavily and was a little dazed, but OK. He was going to have a visit to the medical service out of caution. RBA Racing driver Juanfran Guevara clocked 1'40.9. Quartararo was then fourth, Danilo twenty-first and Boulom thirty-fifth. Andrea Migno fell. Note that Brad Binder can be crowned with the largest gap ever recorded compared to second, a record which belongs to Valentino Rossi who was crowned World Champion in 2005 with 147 points in advance. This seemed to be part of the objectives of the South African who took the best time in 1'40.903, 0.06 ahead of Guevara.
Enzo Boulom fell (OK). Andrea Migno's bike was returned to his stand, too damaged for the Italian to participate in the rest of FP1. At the end of the session, Juanfran Guevara improved to 1'40.333, ahead of Binder, Loi, Rodrigo and Mir. Enea Bastianini, then tenth, fell in turn 10 (OK) losing the front. Guevara brilliantly finished the first session in the lead, ahead of Rodrigo, Binder and Quartararo, while Danilo ranked twenty-fourth and Boulom thirty-fifth.
FP1 ranking,
| 1 | 58 | Juanfran GUEVARA | KTM | 1'40.333 | ||
| 2 | 19 | Gabriel RODRIGO | KTM | 1'40.538 | 0.205 | 0.205 |
| 3 | 41 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 1'40.590 | 0.257 | 0.052 |
| 4 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | KTM | 1'40.607 | 0.274 | 0.017 |
| 5 | 36 | Joan Mir | KTM | 1'40.613 | 0.280 | 0.006 |
| 6 | 55 | Andrea LOCATELLI | KTM | 1'40.689 | 0.356 | 0.076 |
| 7 | 11 | Livio LOI | Honda | 1'40.753 | 0.420 | 0.064 |
| 8 | 21 | Francesco Bagnaia | Mahindra | 1'40.791 | 0.458 | 0.038 |
| 9 | 44 | Aaron CANET | Honda | 1'40.854 | 0.521 | 0.063 |
| 10 | 23 | Niccolo ANTONELLI | Honda | 1'40.881 | 0.548 | 0.027 |
| 11 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | KTM | 1'40.900 | 0.567 | 0.019 |
| 12 | 31 | Raul FERNANDEZ | KTM | 1'41.115 | 0.782 | 0.215 |
| 13 | 88 | Jorge MARTIN | Mahindra | 1'41.154 | 0.821 | 0.039 |
| 14 | 65 | Philipp OETTL | KTM | 1'41.166 | 0.833 | 0.012 |
| 15 | 33 | Enea BASTIANINI | Honda | 1'41.176 | 0.843 | 0.010 |
| 16 | 8 | Nicholas BULEGA | KTM | 1'41.194 | 0.861 | 0.018 |
| 17 | 48 | Lorenzo FROM THE DOOR | KTM | 1'41.358 | 1.025 | 0.164 |
| 18 | 76 | Hiroki ONO | Honda | 1'41.446 | 1.113 | 0.088 |
| 19 | 16 | Andrea MIGNO | KTM | 1'41.465 | 1.132 | 0.019 |
| 20 | 4 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Honda | 1'41.500 | 1.167 | 0.035 |
| 21 | 7 | Adam NORRODIN | Honda | 1'41.580 | 1.247 | 0.080 |
| 22 | 42 | Marcos RAMIREZ | Mahindra | 1'41.612 | 1.279 | 0.032 |
| 23 | 84 | Jakub KORNFEIL | Honda | 1'41.785 | 1.452 | 0.173 |
| 24 | 95 | Jules DANILO | Honda | 1'41.888 | 1.555 | 0.103 |
| 25 | 24 | Tatsuki SUZUKI | Mahindra | 1'41.899 | 1.566 | 0.011 |
| 26 | 40 | Darryn BINDER | Mahindra | 1'41.994 | 1.661 | 0.095 |
| 27 | 98 | Karel HANIKA | KTM | 1'42.136 | 1.803 | 0.142 |
| 28 | 89 | Khairul Idham PAWI | Honda | 1'42.252 | 1.919 | 0.116 |
| 29 | 63 | Vicente PEREZ | Peugeot | 1'42.350 | 2.017 | 0.098 |
| 30 | 9 | Jorge NAVARRO | Honda | 1'42.489 | 2.156 | 0.139 |
| 31 | 77 | Lorenzo PETRARCA | Mahindra | 1'42.502 | 2.169 | 0.013 |
| 32 | 12 | Albert Arenas | Peugeot | 1'42.592 | 2.259 | 0.090 |
| 33 | 26 | Daniel SAEZ | KTM | 1'42.766 | 2.433 | 0.174 |
| 34 | 43 | Stefano VALTULINI | Mahindra | 1'43.159 | 2.826 | 0.393 |
| 35 | 99 | Enzo BOULOM | Mahindra | 1'44.997 | 4.664 | 1.838 |
