Pol Espargaro took advantage of some calmer weather in southern Spain to dominate the second day of testing at Jerez. The Spaniard comfortably topped all three sessions on Wednesday ahead of surprise package Takaaki Nakagami with Scott Redding justifying his status as one of the pre-season title favourites in third.
After yesterday’s virtual wash-out, the last thing the teams wanted to see this morning was the fog that greeted them. Fortunately, it cleared long before lunchtime allowing Espargaro to settle straight into a lightning pace. By the end of session two, the Tuenti HP 40 rider was well within the 2012 pole position and would go on to improve in the final session of the day, closing on a 1:42.332.
Nakagami, who famously qualified on the front row last season on his third Moto2 appearance, was equally impressive in second and along with Redding in third, also dipped under the pole position record. Julian Simon completed a Kalex 1-2-3-4 ahead of Tuesday pacesetter Nicolas Terol on the leading Suter for Aspar.
The former 125cc champion achieved that despite a crash with Esteve Rabat overcoming a similar hurdle on his way to sixth. Mika Kallio was seventh on the second Marc VDS Kalex ahead of Jordi Torres, Johann Zarco and Dominique Aegerter, all on Suters. The first of the Speed Ups came courtesy of Mike Di Meglio in eleventh while British rookies Danny Kent (Tech 3) and Kyle Smith (Blusens Avintia Kalex) were 25th and 26th respectively.
| Moto2 Jerez Test: Combined Classification – Wednesday 20th February | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time | |
| 1 | 40. Pol Espargaro |  |
Tuenti HP 40 | 1:42.332 | |
| 2 | 30. Takaaki Nakagami |  |
Italtrans Racing Team | 1:42.631 | |
| 3 | 45. Scott Redding |  |
Marc VDS Racing Team | 1:42.849 | |
| 4 | 60. Julian Simon | |
Italtrans Racing Team | 1:43.062 | |
| 5 | 18. Nicolas Terol | |
Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | 1:43.232 | |
| 6 | 80. Esteve Rabat | |
Tuenti HP 40 | 1:43.407 | |
| 7 | 36. Mika Kallio |  |
Marc VDS Racing Team | 1:43.509 | |
| 8 | 81. Jordi Torres | |
Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | 1:43.549 | |
| 9 | 5. Johann Zarco |  |
Came IodaRacing Project | 1:43.671 | |
| 10 | 77. Dominique Aegerter |  |
Technomag carXpert | 1:43.757 | |
| 11 | 63. Mike Di Meglio | |
JIR Moto2 | 1:43.783 | |
| 12 | 3. Simone Corsi |  |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:43.820 | Report |
| 13 | 49. Axel Pons | |
Tuenti HP 40 | 1:43.882 | |
| 14 | 15. Alex De Angelis |  |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:44.078 | Report |
| 15 | 19. Xavier Simeon |  |
Maptaq SAG Zelos Team | 1:44.185 | |
| 16 | 54. Mattia Pasini | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:44.329 | Report |
| 17 | 24. Toni Elias | |
Blusens Avintia | 1:44.348 | |
| 18 | 11. Sandro Cortese |  |
Dynavolt Intact GP | 1:44.404 | |
| 19 | 14. Ratthapark Wilairot |  |
Thai Honda Gresini Moto2 | 1:44.629 | Report |
| 20 | 4. Randy Krummenacher | |
Technomag carXpert | 1:44.695 | |
| 21 | 95. Anthony West |  |
QMMF Racing Team | 1:45.005 | |
| 22 | 88. Ricard Cardus | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:45.139 | Report |
| 23 | 44. Steven Odendaal |  |
Arguiñano & Gines Racing | 1:45.267 | |
| 24 | 72. Yuki Takahashi | |
Idemitsu Honda Team Asia | 1:45.546 | |
| 25 | 52. Danny Kent | |
Tech 3 Racing | 1:45.557 | |
| 26 | 9. Kyle Smith | |
Blusens Avintia | 1:45.605 | |
| 27 | 96. Louis Rossi | |
Tech 3 Racing | 1:45.614 | |
| 28 | 97. Rafid Topan Sucipto |  |
QMMF Racing Team | 1:46.380 | |
| 29 | 23. Marcel Schrotter | |
Desguaces La Torre SAG Team | 1:46.625 | |
| 30 | 7. Doni Tata Pradita | |
Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | 1:46.672 | Report |
| 31 | 17. Alberto Moncayo | |
Arguiñano & Gines Racing | 1:47.286 | |
