Arón Canet managed to keep the time of the first free practice - 1min44s450 - and stay in the lead of this Friday's (3) Catalunya GP
On a very hot afternoon in Barcelona, Arón Canet was the leader of Friday's activities at the GP of Catalunya with the time set in the morning session: 1min44s450. The Spanish driver barely appeared in the second free practice, but nobody came close to dethroning him in any way.
Augusto Fernández was second: 1min44s474, also in the morning practice. Jake Dixon rounded out the top three, 0.079 seconds behind the leader. Sam Lowes and Bo Bendsneyder were fourth and fifth, respectively.
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Rounding out the top-10 are Albert Arenas, Marcel Schrötter, Joe Roberts - TL2 leader -, Pedro Acosta and Alonso López.
Moto2 returns to action later this Saturday (4), with qualifying for the Catalunya GP, starting at 10:10 a.m. (ET).GRANDE PRÊMIO will follow all the activities of the ninth round of the 2022 Moto2 World Championship.
How the first Moto2 practice sessions went in Barcelona:
Arón Canet was fastest in the first free practice with 1min44s450, followed by Augusto Fernández, Jake Dixon, Sam Lowes and Bo Bendsneyder.
With a blazing sun and lots of heat, Sam Lowes was the first to set a time in the afternoon session: 1min45s406. Championship leader Celestino Vietti came out to take the lead with 1min45s177, leaving Lowes behind by 0s229.
Dixon jumped into second position next, narrowing the gap to Vietti. But last weekend's winner Pedro Acosta topped the timesheets with a 1min44s937. Bendsneyder was 0s194 seconds behind. Lorenzo Dalla Porta dethroned the Dutch driver to take second place, only for Bo to fight back.
Acosta was the only one within 1mins44s. But who held the lead with the combined times was still Arón Canet. Acosta's teammate, Fernández was climbing positions. He pushed Bendsneyder out of third place with 1min45s088.
It was during the final minutes that Joe Roberts took over the first position. And just barely. He reached 1min44s930, 0s007 behind Acosta. However, the Spaniard claimed his position with 1min44s838, but had his lap deleted. More riders were returning to the track to try to improve their times.
The second crash was for the rider of moto #37. Fernández was improving his time when he crashed in turn 10. He got up without any apparent problems. Meanwhile, Roberts was slowing down to 1min44s808, but still 0s358 away from the best time of the day. He went further down, 1min44s752, finishing eighth on the combined timesheet. Canet, therefore, took the lead for the day.