2020 Qatar Moto2 FP2 Result: Roberts Puts On A Show | MotoMatters.com

Submitted by Zara Daniela on Fri, 2020-03-06 16:05

The night had truly fallen by the time the intermediate class basked in the floodlights of Qatar and it placed the spotlight firmly on the American Racing team. Joe Roberts, who had already showed fine speed in the first practice session, went on to improve the all time lap record in FP2, dropping to the mid 1:58s and remaining unchallenged for the rest of the session. Teamwork made the minor dream work for the Sky Racing crew as well, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini riding together into the second and third positions, although a quarter of a second slower than the leader.

Tetsuta Nagashima in fourth was the last rider to touch the 1:58s, while Xavi Vierge recovered from a troubled start in FP1 to climb into fifth in FP2. It was a mixed session for Augusto Fernandez, who led the way early on but battered his new machine through the gravel trap at turn 5 and ended the session 15 minutes early, dropping to sixth position. Bo Bendsneyder climbed a few places in the pecking order to grab seventh, while Enea Bastianini, Nicolo Bulega and Jorge Martin completed the top ten, seven tenths off the lead.

FP1 leader Tom Luthi didn’t have an easy ride the second time out, the Swiss rider sliding off at turn 14 early in the session, missing significant track time and then going down again at turn 2 once he rejoined the action for the final few minutes. With only five laps on the board and down in 26th in the session, Luthi was saved by his FP1 time, placing him 11th on the combined timesheets.

The rest of provisional top 14 positions at the end of Friday were secured by Jorge Navarro, Marcel Schrotter and rapid rookie Aron Canet, with Lorenzo Baldassarri just missing out by two hundredths of a second. Remy Gardner looked like a safe bet for a Q2 worthy position but a pretty heavy late crash out of turn one impeded his progress and dropped him to 16th spot overall.

Results:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap 1st	Prev.
1	16	Joe ROBERTS	Kalex	1'58.421
2	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	Kalex	1'58.669	0.248	0.248
3	10	Luca MARINI	Kalex	1'58.759	0.338	0.090
4	45	Tetsuta NAGASHIMA	Kalex	1'58.921	0.500	0.162
5	97	Xavi VIERGE	Kalex	1'59.059	0.638	0.138
6	37	Augusto FERNANDEZ	Kalex	1'59.074	0.653	0.015
7	64	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NTS	1'59.089	0.668	0.015
8	33	Enea BASTIANINI	Kalex	1'59.114	0.693	0.025
9	11	Nicolo BULEGA	Kalex	1'59.136	0.715	0.022
10	88	Jorge MARTIN	Kalex	1'59.148	0.727	0.012
11	9	Jorge NAVARRO	Speed Up	1'59.189	0.768	0.041
12	23	Marcel SCHROTTER	Kalex	1'59.198	0.777	0.009
13	7	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	Kalex	1'59.237	0.816	0.039
14	44	Aron CANET	Speed Up	1'59.278	0.857	0.041
15	21	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	Speed Up	1'59.284	0.863	0.006
16	35	Somkiat CHANTRA	Kalex	1'59.290	0.869	0.006
17	87	Remy GARDNER	Kalex	1'59.434	1.013	0.144
18	57	Edgar PONS	Kalex	1'59.486	1.065	0.052
19	22	Sam LOWES	Kalex	1'59.561	1.140	0.075
20	96	Jake DIXON	Kalex	1'59.641	1.220	0.080
21	42	Marcos RAMIREZ	Kalex	1'59.709	1.288	0.068
22	24	Simone CORSI	MV Agusta	1'59.839	1.418	0.130
23	40	Hector GARZO	Kalex	2'00.020	1.599	0.181
24	62	Stefano MANZI	MV Agusta	2'00.160	1.739	0.140
25	2	Jesko RAFFIN	NTS	2'00.183	1.762	0.023
26	12	Thomas LUTHI	Kalex	2'00.262	1.841	0.079
27	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	Speed Up	2'00.396	1.975	0.134
28	19	Lorenzo DALLA PORTA	Kalex	2'00.804	2.383	0.408
29	27	Andi Farid IZDIHAR	Kalex	2'01.265	2.844	0.461
30	99	Kasma Daniel KASMAUDIN	Kalex	2'02.886	4.465	1.621