Jake Dixon is in the box seat to get through to Q2 at the Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley after the Inde GASGAS Aspar Team rider was fastest on the opening day of action in Moto2™. While he was unable to improve in FP2 on his 1:51.966 from earlier on Friday at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, the mercury was climbing well into the 30s, and few riders did go quicker in the afternoon. Whether they will get a genuine chance to up their pace in FP3 will now depend very much on if it gets wet on Saturday morning or not. Even once the chequered flag had flown on FP2 and riders had completed their final laps, five of the top six on the combined timesheet were there courtesy of laps which they had set in FP1. Behind Dixon, Le Mans race winner Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) continues to hold down second spot on a 1:52.282, and it is still Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) in third on a 1:52.346. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Filip Salac (Gresini Racing Moto2™) also did their best work in FP1, at least so far as the stopwatch is concerned, finishing up fifth- and sixth-quickest for the two sessions overall. At this stage, it is looking likely that they will advance directly to Q2 because forecasts of rain for Saturday morning are firming.
Bo Bendsneyder who was 18th in FP1, was able to better his time in FP2 with almost a half second. He was 12th in FP2. On the combined timingsheets he is 18th; the few riders in FP2 that were faster then in FP1 all were faster than Bo’s time, so he dropped out of the top 14. Hopefully it is dry tomorrow morning so there is a chance to improve and go in to Q2 directly.
Results FP2:
Source: motogp.com, badboybo64.com, stopandgo.es
