Bradl Blitzes The Opposition On Friday Afternoon

Stefan Bradl takes to the track this weekend under intense pressure but you wouldn't have believed it on Friday afternoon, as he dominated the Moto2 class.

The German has seen Marc Marquez whittle away at his lead all summer and after seeing the youngster top the timesheets in FP1, may have been forgiven for thinking he was in an uphill struggle again.

But the championship lead fought back, showing the kind of form which gave him such a strong points advantage, to pull out a half second over Aleix Espargaro with Marquez dropping to third. The Catalunya Suter rider was unable to match his impressive pace from the opening session and the onus will now be on him to raise his game tomorrow.

Thomas Luthi jumped up from 16^th in the morning to fourth in the afternoon while the two Ioda Racing FTRs, Mattia Pasini and Simone Corsi, broke into the top ten for the second session running, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Pol Espargaro was another man to continue his strong run of form in seventh while the two Gresini Moriwakis of Michele Pirro and Yuki Takahashi set nearly identical times to each other just behind.

Scott Redding rounded out the top ten but fellow Briton Bradley Smith ended up down in 14^th after failing to match his morning time. The Tech 3 rider will have a chance to make improvements in tomorrow morning's final practice session which gets underway at 10:10am UK time.

 

Friday Practice Result:

Pos	Rider	Nat	Bike	Team	Time/Gap
1	Stefan Bradl	GER	Kalex	Viessman Kiefer Racing	1:38.461
2	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Pons Kalex	Pons HP 40	+0.550
3	Marc Marquez	SPA	Suter	Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol	+0.554
4	Thomas Luthi	SWI	Suter	Interwetten Paddock Moto2	+0.584
5	Mattia Pasini	ITA	FTR	Ioda Racing Project	+0.679
6	Simone Corsi	ITA	FTR	Ioda Racing Project	+0.806
7	Pol Espargaro	SPA	FTR	HP Tuenti Speed Up	+0.837
8	Michele Pirro	ITA	Moriwaki	Gresini Racing Moto2	+0.838
9	Yuki Takahashi	JAP	Moriwaki	Gresini Racing Moto2	+0.847
10	Scott Redding	GBR	Suter	Marc VDS Racing Team	+0.951
11	Andrea Iannone	ITA	Suter	Speed Master	+1.048
12	Alex de Angelis	RSM	Motobi	JIR Moto2	+1.267
13	Esteve Rabat	SPA	FTR	Blusens-STX	+1.353
14	Bradley Smith	GBR	Tech 3	Tech 3 Racing	+1.541
15	Max Neukirchner	GER	MZ-RE Honda	MZ Racing Team	+1.557
16	Randy Krummenacher	SWI	Kalex	GP Team Switzerland Kiefer Racing	+1.596
17	Mika Kallio	FIN	Suter	Marc VDS Racing Team	+1.623
18	Julian Simon	SPA	Suter	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	+1.659
19	Jordi Torres	SPA	Suter	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	+1.660
20	Claudio Corti	ITA	Suter	Italtrans Racing Team	+1.682
21	Raffaele de Rosa	ITA	Suter	NGM Forward Racing	+1.796
22	Tomoyoshi Koyama	JAP	Suter	Technomag-CIP	+1.844
23	Dominique Aegerter	SWI	Suter	Technomag-CIP	+1.871
24	Ricard Cardus	SPA	Moriwaki	QMMF Racing Team	+1.897
25	Anthony West	AUS	MZ-RE Honda	MZ Racing Team	+1.907
26	Jules Cluzel	FRA	Suter	NGM Forward Racing	+1.932
27	Kenny Noyes	USA	FTR	Avintia-STX	+2.018
28	Xavier Simeon	BEL	Tech 3	Tech 3 B	+2.052
29	Alex Baldolini	ITA	Pons Kalex	Pons HP 40	+2.140
30	Joan Olive	SPA	FTR	Blusens-STX	+2.237
31	Mike Di Meglio	FRA	Tech 3	Tech 3 Racing	+2.274
32	Robertino Pietri	VEN	Suter	Italtrans Racing Team	+2.357
33	Alessandro Andreozzi (WC)	ITA	FTR	Andreozzi Reparto Corse	+2.428
34	Ratthapark Wilairot	THA	FTR	Thai Honda Singha SAG	+2.630
35	Valentin Debise	FRA	FTR	Speed Up	+2.645
36	Carmelo Morales	SPA	Suter	Desguaces La Torre G22	+2.737
37	Jacob Gagne	USA	FTR	Aeroport de Castello	+3.223
38	Mashel Al Naimi	QAT	Moriwaki	QMMF Racing Team	+3.914
39	Santiago Hernandez	COL	FTR	SAG Team	+4.225