Michael Scott | August 10, 2018
2018 Austria Moto2 and Moto3 Friday Results
As with MotoGP, Moto2’s morning times set the pace, for the afternoon was sodden; while in line with a remarkable year for this former Cinderella class, times were very close, the top 22 inside one second.
2018 Austria Moto2 and Moto3 Friday Results
At the top, erstwhile championship leader Pecco Bagnaia (SKY VR46 KTM), by six hundredths from Lorenzo Baldassarri (Pons HP40 Kalex), with two more of the same chassis right up close – Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Kalex) and Alex Marquez (EG-VDS Kalex).
Then came Fabio Quartararo’s Speed Up, from the Kalexes of Luc Marini and Andrea Locatelli. Sam Lowes in eighth was the best of the KTMs; with new championship leader Miguel Oliveira 16th, less than half-a-second off pole.
The drenched afternoon gave different riders a chance to float to the surface … in this case the pair riding the new-this-year NTS machines. American rookie Joe Roberts was fastest, until his team-mate, South African Steven Odendaal pipped him at the end by less than a quarter of a second. Marini was third in the wet; Tech 3 rider Remy Gardner fourth, Bagnaia tenth and Oliveira a stay-indoors 30th.
2018 Austria Moto2 and Moto3 Friday Results
Moto3 had one dry session, and one partly dry in the afternoon, and maybe half the riders went faster before spitting rain came in the latter stages.
All the same, the top two times came from the morning, with Jaume Massia (Bester KTM) and championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Redox KTM) top of the sheets.
John McPhee (Green Power KTM) moved to third fastest in the afternoon, displacing Lorenzo Dalla Porta, on the top Honda.
Gabriel Rodrigo and Philipp Oettl (both KTM) were next, then the Hondas of Bastianini and Toba.
Former championship leader Jorge Martin, out injured from last weekend’s Czech Republic race, was a tentative 26th, less than a week after surgery to a wrist fracture, but promised improvement tomorrow.
Nicolo Bulega, placed tenth behind Alberto Arenas, closed the session with a major high-side at the first corner, his looping bike hitting Nakarin Atiratphuvapat while he was taking avoiding action. Both escaped serious injury; Nico Antonelli also fell as a result, but was able to remount directly.
2018 Austria Moto2 and Moto3 Friday Results