Canet leads FP3, Roberts stays top overall
Moto2 debutant Aron Canet has gone fastest the final practice session at the Qatar Grand Prix but couldn’t topple Joe Roberts from the overall practice times.
Moto2 debutant Aron Canet has gone fastest the final practice session at the Qatar Grand Prix but couldn’t topple Joe Roberts from the overall practice times.
In a strong showing by the Speed Up riders, Canet led the charge with a 1m 59.019s in windy conditions but couldn’t get close to the new intermediate track recordof 1m 58.421s set by Roberts yesterday.
Aspar’s Canet held on to FP3 top spot by just 0.033s from factory Speed Up rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Italtrans Racing’s Enea Bastianini leading the Kalex charge in third place.
Despite suffering his second fall of the weekend, this time at the fast Turn 15, Remy Gardner still went fourth fastest for the SAG squad with former team-mate Tetusta Nagashima continuing to impress while adapting to Red Bull KTM Ajo with fifth place in FP3.
Jorge Navarro claimed sixth place in the final practice session but it wasn’t enough to secure an automatic Q2 spot, given to the top 14 riders on the combined times, as he missed out by just 0.021s in 15th place overall for Speed Up.
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Augusto Fernandez did retain a Q2 spot with seventh place in FP3 and he will be the sole representation for the defending Moto2 world champions for the rest of the Qatar Moto2 weekend following the withdrawal of Sam Lowes due to a shoulder injury.
Fellow British rider Jake Dixon surged up to eighth place in FP3 which left him 19th overall for Petronas Sprinta Racing, with the likes of Luca Marini, Nicolo Bulega, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi all retaining Q2 spots thanks to their Friday times. Bo Bendsneyder, Xavi Vierge and Thomas Luthi also all held on to their automatic Q2 spots despite struggling for outright pace in FP3.
