Sandro Cortese moved to the top of the timesheets on Friday afternoon in cool and overcast conditions at Brno. Rain threatened to fall towards the end of the session but thankfully stayed away, allowing the German to put in a 2:08.762 three minutes from the end.
That put him a fraction ahead of Johann Zarco who had led the session until then. The Frenchman was just 0.038s behind in second while Miguel Oliveira completed an impressive day's running with third for AndalucÃa Banca Civica.
Danny Kent put in a stunning performance on the sole Red Bull Ajo Aprilia as the British youngster benefitted from an upgrade in machinery. With teammate Jonas Folger missing this weekend's race due to illness, Kent has taken his RSA machine which is of a superior specification to his previous RSW. The 17 year old ran second behind Zarco for a sustained period of the session and finished in an impressive fifth, demoted in the closing minutes by Blusens rider Sergio Gadea.
Alberto Moncayo, who shone this morning, put in another stellar display to finish sixth ahead of the two Aspar Aprilias of Nicolas Terol and Hector Faubel. Terol's morning time remains top of the combined classification though with his 2:08.456 remaining unbeaten. Meanwhile, the third of the lime green machines ended up on the floor with Adrian Martin crashing towards the end of the session.
Efren Vazquez and Maverick Vinales completed the top ten ahead of Marcel Schrotter who was the quickest Mahindra in 11th. Teammate Danny Webb was 18th with Taylor Mackenzie 29th and Harry Stafford 33rd after a trouble filled afternoon.
