Early Session

The British rider set the best lap in a first practice that was run in the wet, but in conditions that permitted more progress than the earlier 125cc and MotoGP sessions.

Whilst conditions were far from ideal for the Moto2 class in the first practice of the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal at Estoril on Friday, they at least allowed the majority of the riders to gain some track time especially towards the end of the 40-minute run.

With the rain easing off in the latter half of the practice – but still coming down – a total of 33 riders were able to gain some track time, with Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding posting a best effort of 2’04.031 on his fifth of six laps to top a timesheet which was widely spread due to the conditions. The young Brit was one of a host of riders who experienced a fall towards the end of the session, one which he escaped unharmed from.

Renowned for his ability to adapt well to such weather Anthony West (MZ Racing) was 1.617s behind in second, with Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Technomag-CIP) starting his weekend with the French team well in third.

Completing the top six were Héctor Faubel (Marc VDS Racing Team), Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) and World Champion Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) who himself had a crash in the closing stages. Neither Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) nor Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up), who are currently locked in a battle for runner-up spot in the standings behind Elías, completed a lap as they opted to play it safe.

Additional riders experiencing crashes on the wet track included Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP), Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) and Axel Pons (Tenerife 40 Pons). The Moto2 class are scheduled to return to the track for FP2 at 3.10pm local time.

Late Session


The Fimmco Speed Up rider set the quickest Moto2 time of the first day in FP2 at Estoril on Friday, with Julián Simón, World Champion Toni Elías and an impressive Kenan Sofuoglu in the top four.

The entire Moto2 field was able to take to the track at Estoril on Friday afternoon as vastly improved conditions in comparison to the morning greeted them for FP2 at the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal.

Fimmco Speed Up rider Gabor Talmacsi was the rider who led the way on the first day as he set a best time of 1’50.916 to top the timesheet across both sessions, and the Hungarian was the only rider under 1’51”. Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), who did not ride in the morning, was second at 0.388s off Talmacsi, with World Champion Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) showing no signs of any hangover from a fall in the morning session to set the third best time as the track provided a much better surface than the rain-drenched one encountered only hours before.

Kenan Sofuoglu, who is riding for the Technomag-CIP team in the final two rounds, was fourth quickest at just over a second off the lead time, as Raffaele De Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) and Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) rounded out the top six. There was still a cautious approach being adopted by the majority of the riders as a gap of over 3.6s separated the top ten, but the Moto2 class were afforded the chance to roll out on slick tyre compounds during the session.

Meanwhile Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up), who is closely matched with Simón in the fight for runner-up spot in the Championship, could only set the 34th fastest time in the session.