Moto3: Bezzecchi tops opening day in Barcelona

Updated: 15 June 2018

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Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PrüstelGP) set the quickest time of the day on his final run in FP2 to take top honours on Friday at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya. The Italian finished FP1 down in P10 after a crash, but improved his time by over a second in the afternoon to beat teammate Jakub Kornfeil by a slender 0.055 seconds.

The Czech rider built on his third-place finish in FP1 to end the day second on the timesheets, with Jerez race winner Philipp Oettl (Südmetall Schedl GP Racing) making it a KTM 1-2-3 – jumping up to third on his final lap of the session after finishing FP1 in 14th. Another rider to considerably improve his position from the morning session was Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse). The Italian ended FP2 in P4 after a late run to finish 0.117 behind compatriot Bezzecchi, improving his time by nearly 1.5 seconds.

Jorge Martin’s (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) time from thie morning looked like it would remain the quickest of the day until a late flurry of times in FP2, but the Mugello race winner improved by 0.019 seconds to end the day fifth fastest. Bester Capital Dubai’s Jaume Masia ended the day in P6, leapfrogging six positions from the morning, with Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) having a solid afternoon to climb 20 positions from FP1 – the South African seventh quickest on Friday.

Scotland’s John McPhee (CIP – Green Power) climbed into the top ten on his final run, improving from P20 in FP1 to end the day eighth fastest. It was a good day for Nicolo Bulega (SKY Racing Team VR46), after finishing second in FP1, the Italian was able to cement a top ten finish on Friday in ninth, just ahead of Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0), who was fourth in FP1.

With just 1.008 seconds covering first place Bezzecchi down to 18th place Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini Moto3), Saturday is shaping up to be a great day in the Moto3™ class, with FP3 kicking off at 09:00 local time (GMT +2).

By Simon Patterson

MotoGP and road racing reporter, photographer, videographer