Baldassarri beats Schrötter to the top: Moto2

David Bodapati March 9, 2019

953 1 minute read

New horizons: the Moto2™ grid enter the Triumph-powered era. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta (L) and Triumph Chief Product Officer Steve Sargent with the bikes at Losail. A MotoGP image

Italian comes out the blocks quickest but it’s tight behind him on the timesheets

Doha, 8 March 2019: Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) led the way in an exceptionally tight Moto2™ field on Day 1 of the VisitQatar Grand Prix, with just three quarters of a second separating the top fifteen. The Italian was second in the race last season but of the competitors still in the class, he was the highest finisher – a benchmark in itself, adding to the new lap record set on Friday. At the top he had a little breathing space, however, with an advantage of a quarter of a second over FP1’s fastest man Marcel Schrötter (Dynavolt Intact GP). Remy Gardner (ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team) locked out the top three, only 0.030 in further arrears as the Australian signalled the start of the infinitesimal gaps from there on out.

Fourth place went to Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) as he converted impressive race pace in testing to a solid time attack too, with Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) completing the top five. Jorge Navarro (+Ego Speed Up) took P6 and showed more impressive speed for rider and manufacturer, ahead of a leap up the timesheets from Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans Racing Team). Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was the fastest KTM and made sure the Austrian factory were represented in the top ten, 0.005 off Locatelli, with Xavi Vierge (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) taking P9.

Baldassarri tops Moto2 times on Friday. A MotoGP Image

The top ten was completed by rookie Enea Bastianini (Italtrans Racing Team) as the Italian took the honour of fastest debutant on Friday. He was hundredths in front of Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP 40), with NTS RW Racing GP’s Bo Bendsneyder in P12 as the Dutchman continued his top form in 2019. Tom Lüthi (Dynavolt Intact GP), returning from the premier class, was 13th despite a crash near the end of the day but remains a provisional Q2 graduate. This weekend the new qualifying format comes in and it’s the fastest 14 after FP3 who’ll go through automatically – so it’s reigning Moto3™ World Champion and Moto2™ rookie Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) currently on course to be the final rider to graduate.

American Racing KTM’s Iker Lecuona crashed in FP1 and was declared fit, returning to the track after a check up to rejoin the action in FP2. Now it’s FP3 time and the final practice session starts at 14:20 (GMT +3) local time on Saturday – tune in to see if there’ll be a shake up before qualifying.