Fenati Finishes Friday On Top At Jerez

 

Romano Fenati's sensational start to life in Grand Prix racing continued as the rookie topped the timesheets in Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. The 16 year old pushed Maverick Vinales for victory in Qatar and led the championship leader today as well, with his time from the dry first session enough to top the combined leaderboard.

The first session was punctuated by a red flag stoppage after Hector Faubel crashed his Kalex KTM at turn two, the same corner where he crashed out of last year's 125cc race. The Bankia Aspar rider was stretchered away but returned to complete 15 laps in the afternoon.

Several more riders went down in the second session, which was run entirely in the wet, with Mahindra one of the teams particularly affected. Both Danny Webb and Marcel Schrotter slid off at the final corner within seconds of each other while Moto FGR's Jasper Iwema also crashed out in the latter stages.

Miguel Oliveira was fastest in FP2 for Estrella Galicia 0,0 but his new teammate created headlines of his own. Alex Marquez, brother of Marc, led the session on a number of occasions before finishing up ninth quickest, despite this being his Grand Prix debut. The Spaniard will race as a wildcard on Sunday.

With conditions so different in the two sessions, the morning times were substantially quicker than the afternoon, leaving Romano Fenati unchallenged at the top with a quarter of a second in hand over Maverick Vinales. Sandro Cortese was third ahead of Oliveira, Luis Salom and Hector Faubel who finished sixth despite his crash.

Danny Kent finished just behind teammate Arthur Sissis in eighth while Danny Webb, unhurt after his fall, was 22^nd overall.

 

Moto3 Gran Premio bwin de Espana: Combined Friday Practice Times

Pos	Rider	Nat	Motorcycle	Team	Time/Gap
1	Romano Fenati	ITA	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	1:49.760
2	Maverick Viñales	SPA	FTR Honda	Blusens Avintia	+0.248
3	Sandro Cortese	GER	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+0.478
4	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+0.857
5	Luis Salom	SPA	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+0.965
6	Hector Faubel	SPA	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+0.968
7	Arthur Sissis	AUS	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.052
8	Danny Kent	GBR	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.168
9	Jakub Kornfeil	CZE	FTR Honda	Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta	+1.256
10	Alberto Moncayo	SPA	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+1.315
11	Alex Marquez (WC)	SPA	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+1.316
12	Louis Rossi	FRA	FTR Honda	Racing Team Germany	+1.340
13	Niccolo Antonelli	ITA	FTR Honda	San Carlo Gresini Moto3	+1.380
14	Alex Rins	SPA	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+1.440
15	Niklas Ajo	FIN	KTM	TT Motion Events Racing	+1.653
16	Alessandro Tonucci	ITA	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	+1.686
17	Jasper Iwema	NED	FGR Honda	Moto FGR	+1.871
18	Brad Binder	RSA	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+1.953
19	Alexis Masbou	FRA	Honda	Caretta Technology	+2.104
20	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	MAL	KTM	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo	+2.194
21	Alan Techer	FRA	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+2.371
22	Danny Webb	GBR	Mahindra Oral	Mahindra Racing	+2.433
23	Isaac Viñales	SPA	FTR Honda	Ongetta-Centro Seta	+2.493
24	Kenta Fujii	JAP	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+2.826
25	Jack Miller	AUS	Honda	Caretta Technology	+3.220
26	Marcel Schrotter	GER	Mahindra Oral	Mahindra Racing	+3.320
27	Simone Grotzkyj	ITA	Oral	Ambrogio Next Racing	+3.477
28	Adrian Martin	SPA	FTR Honda	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	+3.563
29	Ivan Moreno	SPA	FTR Honda	Andalucía JHK Laglisse	+3.669
30	Efren Vazquez	SPA	FTR Honda	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	+3.773
31	Toni Finsterbusch	GER	MZ-RE Honda	Cresto Guide MZ Racing	+4.797
32	Josep Rodriguez (WC)	SPA	FTR Honda	Wild Wolf BST	+5.233
33	Giulian Pedone	SWI	Oral	Ambrogio Next Racing	+6.805
34	Luigi Morciano	ITA	Ioda	Ioda Team Italia	+7.481