2019 Sepang Moto3 FP2 Result: Toba Times It Right

With the script for FP1 affected by rain throughout the night and limiting the speed that lightweight class riders could find, a fully dry FP2 meant that times were quick to tumble. An unharmed Ayumu Sasaki was back to business after a painful looking crash in the morning and his determination saw him head straight to the top of the timesheets. The Japanese rider had no real competition for top spot until the mini shootout of the final five minutes, which became all the more important when looking at the possibly wet forecast for Saturday.

Riders were left with one or two flying laps to decide their qualifying group and the hierarchy changed quite drastically by the checkered flag. Kaito Toba took over from his compatriot at the top of the timesheets, the Honda Team Asia rider two tenths of a second faster than another compatriot, Tatsuki Suzuki. Darryn Binder’s outlook for qualifying looks a bit more rosy than lately, the South African up to third. Sasaki’s late improvements saw him save fourth, with FP1 leader Migno rounding out the top five.

Aron Canet in sixth was in the middle of a group separated by mere thousandths of a second, only three of those keeping him ahead of Alonso Lopez and Romano Fenati, who posted identical times. Rookie Sergio Garcia and Tony Arbolino completed the top ten, with the final provisional Q2 spots going to Jaume Masia, Fillip Salac, Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Raul Fernandez.

The likes of Marcos Ramirez or Gabriel Rodrigo will be hoping for a dry FP3, as will Albert Arenas, whose late off track excursion at turn 15 did not help his cause, or John McPhee, whose challenge ended at turn ten and dropped him all the way down to 24th position.

Results: