Moto3

FP1

It was Estrella Galicia 0.0’s Miguel Oliveira who was on the pace from the off as he led the first free Moto3™ practice session at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana ahead of Jonas Folger and Luis Salom.

It was a wet and slightly chilly first outing at the Valencia track for the Moto3 contingent, as they got preparations underway for the final race of the season. Portuguese rider Oliveira was consistently quick throughout the session and posted the best time of 1.53’147, with Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Folger only fractionally behind. RW Racing GP’s Salom, who will be fighting for the runner-up spot this weekend, will be pleased at having finished the first outing in third.

Behind him was another Spaniard in the form of JHK t-shirt Laglisse’s Efrén Vázquez, who was just over half a second down on the leader, with Caretta Technology’s Jack Miller showing his prowess in the wet closely behind. Also in the fight for second is Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales, who will hope to catch up to Salom in the afternoon. Salom’s teammate Brad Binder put in a good performance to finish in seventh, with the returning Hector Faubel in tow, riding the Andalucia JHK t-shirt Laglisse machine.

Vázquez’s teammate, Adrián Martín, and current Moto3 World Champion Sandro Cortese completed the top ten. Despite the wet conditions, the field was not blighted by crashes, apart from TT Motion Events Racing’s Niklas Ajo, who came off half way through practice. He walked away from the crash unscathed.

FP2

In the second Moto3 free practice for the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana it was Caretta Technology’s John McPhee who took advantage of the conditions to top the day’s timesheets ahead of Jack Miller and Alex Márquez.

The second Moto3 session started wet, although the rain from earlier in the day had stopped. As riders went out on wet tyres, a dry line started to form, although the vast majority did not switch to slicks at the end with conditions still appearing a bit risky. It was however McPhee who thought otherwise and set a fast lap right at the very end on a pair of slick tyres to set the quickest time of 1.50’503, followed by teammate Jack Miller, who had also switched to those tyres.

Following the duo was Ambrogio Next Racing’s Alex Márquez just over six tenths down, with RW Racing GP’s Brad Binder in tow. Binder had appeared to be on a faster lap, yet was held up in the final few turns. In fifth, Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger looked to be the quickest of the session throughout as he was consistently at the top of the timesheets when the track was still wet. He was almost evenly matched on pace by Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales, who will have to get a good result this weekend if he is to finish runner-up in the championship.

AirAsia-SIC-Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin ended the day in seventh, followed by reigning Moto3 World Champion Sandro Cortese. Cortese will aim to finish the season with another win, yet did not look to be risking anything in the mixed conditions. Racing Team Germany’s Louis Rossi was ninth, just over 1.3s off the top, with Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Danny Kent rounding out the top ten.