Oliveira Leads Friday Practice At Estoril

 

Home favourite Miguel Oliveira clocked the fastest time on Friday afternoon at Estoril as Estrella Galicia 0,0's strong start to 2012 continued. The Monlau Competicion squad took pole last weekend courtesy of Alex Rins and will head into tomorrow's qualifying session with intentions of back-to-back poles after Oliveira's display today.

The session was led for the most part by Sandro Cortese as the KTM-powered runners enjoyed a straight-line speed advantage. The Red Bull Ajo rider was the first man into the 1:50s as the Moto3 field finally got down to some dry running. Cortese quickly dropped into the 1:49s and pulled out a one-second advantage but Oliveira got on terms with him 15 minutes from time.

Cortese hit back and moved into the mid-1:48s but once again, Oliveira went with him and sneaked in front of him by 14 thousandths of a second. Luis Salom was the only other rider within half a second of the ultimate pace in third while Maverick Vinales finished fourth despite having a lap time deleted for overtaking under yellow flags.

Alexis Masbou was a surprise fifth ahead of championship leader Romano Fenati who stayed out of trouble to take sixth on his first visit to Estoril. Danny Kent bounced back from a tough race in Jerez with the seventh fastest time with Louis Rossi, Adrian Martin and Kent's teammate Arthur Sissis rounding out the top ten.

Danny Webb dragged his underpowered Mahindra up to 22^nd, over a second quicker than his teammate Marcel Schrotter who crashed in the morning, but it was a tough day for wildcard rider Kevin Hanus who heavily damaged his Honda with a crash at the Parabolica.

 

Moto3 Grande Premio de Portugal Circuito Estoril: Combined Friday Practice Times

Pos	Rider	Nat	Motorcycle	Team	Time/Gap
1	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	1:48.497
2	Sandro Cortese	GER	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+0.014
3	Luis Salom	SPA	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+0.382
4	Maverick Viñales	SPA	FTR Honda	Blusens Avintia	+0.841
5	Alexis Masbou	FRA	Honda	Caretta Technology	+0.913
6	Romano Fenati	ITA	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	+1.063
7	Danny Kent	GBR	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.278
8	Louis Rossi	FRA	FTR Honda	Racing Team Germany	+1.373
9	Adrian Martin	SPA	FTR Honda	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	+1.440
10	Arthur Sissis	AUS	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+1.663
11	Efren Vazquez	SPA	FTR Honda	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	+1.963
12	Hector Faubel	SPA	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+2.038
13	Jakub Kornfeil	CZE	FTR Honda	Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta	+2.108
14	Alex Rins	SPA	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+2.156
15	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	MAL	KTM	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo	+2.269
16	Alan Techer	FRA	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+2.281
17	Alessandro Tonucci	ITA	FTR Honda	Team Italia FMI	+2.451
18	Alberto Moncayo	SPA	Kalex KTM	Bankia Aspar Team	+2.498
19	Joan Olive	SPA	KTM	TT Motion Events Racing	+2.581
20	Niccolo Antonelli	ITA	FTR Honda	San Carlo Gresini Moto3	+2.691
21	Brad Binder	RSA	Kalex KTM	RW Racing GP	+2.870
22	Danny Webb	GBR	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	+2.941
23	Alex Marquez (WC)	SPA	Suter Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+3.210
24	Jasper Iwema	NED	FGR Honda	Moto FGR	+3.320
25	Ivan Moreno	SPA	FTR Honda	Andalucía JHK Laglisse	+3.740
26	Isaac Viñales	SPA	FTR Honda	Ongetta-Centro Seta	+3.946
27	Manuel Tatasciore	ITA	Honda	Caretta Technology	+4.099
28	Marcel Schrotter	GER	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	+4.288
29	Giulian Pedone	SWI	Oral	Ambrogio Next Racing	+5.253
30	Luigi Morciano	ITA	Ioda	Ioda Team Italia	+6.103
31	Toni Finsterbusch	GER	MZ-RE FTR	Cresto Guide MZ Racing	+6.158
32	Kenta Fujii	JPN	TSR Honda	Technomag-CIP-TSR	+7.116
33	Kevin Hanus (WC)	GER	Honda	Thomas Sabo GP Team	+7.478
34	Armando Pontone	ITA	Ioda	IodaRacing Project	+7.929
35	Simone Grotzkyj	ITA	Oral	Ambrogio Next Racing	+17.718