Moto3 Valencia FP2: Jaume Masiá and his KTM ahead of five Hondas

Due to a cool temperature in the morning, the FP1 ranking was a bit surprising with Marcos Ramírez finishing first ahead of the astonishing Filip Salac, 2019 World Champion Dalla Porta, Sergio Garcia and Andrea Migno. The second session looked more promising due to a more encouraging temperature for the drivers.

Valencia Moto3™	2018	2019
FP1	1'52.782 Nakarin Atiratphuvapat	1'40.291 Marco Ramírez
FP2	1'51.873 Alonso Lopez	1'39.612 Jaume Masia
FP3	1'49.406 Marco Bezzecchi
Q1	XXX
Q2	1'46.773 Tony Arbolino
warm up	1'50.712 Marco Bezzecchi
Course	Öncü, Martin, McPhee
All time lap record	1'38.428 Jorge Martin (2017)

The time to beat in this second session was the 1'40.291 set by Marco Ramírez in the morning on his Leopard Racing Team Honda. The now more favorable thermometer indicated 15° for the air and 21° for the track.

Xavier Artigas, who started in the Grand Prix as a wildcard for the Leopard Racing team, was the first to set a fast lap in 1'40.600. He knew the Ricardo Tormo Circuit perfectly, having raced there a lot in CEV. Almost immediately, Fenati clocked a time of 1'40.209. After only ten minutes, the best time of the morning was a distant memory.

In the classification of the two sessions combined, Fenati was the new leader ahead of Ramírez and Antonelli.

The first half-session went fairly calmly, with the drivers and their teams devoting their time to setting up the machines in race configuration. Then Xavier Artigas stood out again by setting the best lap in 1'40.190, ahead of Fenati, Ramírez, Antonelli and Salac.

Ayumu Sasaki, Fabio Quartararo's teammate at Petronas–Sepang, was suffering more and more from his fractured hand. He was then in 31st and last place, and his participation in the Grand Prix seemed more and more hypothetical. His teammate John McPhee fell without seriousness in Turn 8.

Makar Yurchenko, the pilot from Kazakhstan, also fell, without gravity and separately, narrowly avoided by Arón Canet.

Less than a quarter of an hour from the checkered flag, Jaume Masiá took command in 1'40.071. Raul Fernández moved into second position in 1'40.111. With 11 minutes to go, Masiá was the first to go under 1'40 with a time of 1'39.886.

Celestino Vietti fell without seriousness in Turn 14. He then occupied a good seventh place in the classification of the two sessions combined.

Jaume Masiá improved further in 1'39.743, ahead of the new World Champion Lorenzo Dalla Porta in 1'40.044.

In the last two minutes, the sprint was on. Sasaki fell again, without gravity but heavily and with his hand broken! Albert Arenas fell shortly after in Turn 4.

Masiá set the best time of the day in 1'39.612, ahead of Garcia, Ramírez, Artigas, Dalla Porta and Fenati.

Combined results from the first day of free practice:

 

Reference times:

Test record: 1'38.428 by Jorge Martin (Honda / Del Conca Gresini) in 2017

Lap record: 1'39.109 by Marcos Ramírez (KTM / Platinum Bay Real Estate) in 2017

Best top speed: 236,8 km/h for Matteo Ferrari (FTR–Honda / Ongetta–Centro Seta) in 2013

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1 Lorenzo DALLA PORTA–Honda 279 points

2 Arón CANET–KTM 190

3 Tony ARBOLINO–Honda 175

4 Marcos RAMÍREZ–Honda 174

5 John MCPHEE–Honda 156

6 Niccolò ANTONELLI–Honda 128

7 Celestino VIETTI–KTM 127

8 Jaume MASIÁ–KTM 121

9 Tatsuki SUZUKI–Honda 111

10 Albert ARENAS–KTM 108

11 Ai OGURA–Honda 103

12 Dennis FOGGIA–KTM 97

13 Jakub KORNFEIL–KTM 77

14 Romano FENATI–Honda 76

15 Alonso LÓPEZ–Honda 71

16 Gabriel RODRIGO–Honda 67

17 Ayumu SASAKI–Honda 62

18 Kaito TOBA–Honda 60

19 Raul FERNÁNDEZ–KTM 60

20 Andrea MIGNO–KTM 58

21 Darryn BINDER–KTM 54

22 Sergio GARCIA–Honda 51

23 Makar YURCHENKO–KTM 22

24 Filip SALAC–KTM 21

25 Stefano NEPA–KTM 19

26 Kazuki MASAKI–KTM 14

27 Tom BOOTH-AMOS–KTM 10

28 Ryusei YAMANAKA–Honda 8

29 Carlos TATAY–KTM 8

30 Riccardo ROSSI–Honda 6

31 Can ÖNCÜ–KTM 4

32 Jeremy ALCOBA–Honda 2

33 Elia BARTOLINI–KTM RSM 1

Photos © motogp.com / Dorna