The Idemitsu Honda Team Asia riders lock out the top ahead of Fernandez
It’s an Idemitsu Honda Team Asia 1-2 heading into qualifying day at the CryptoDATA Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich as Somkiat Chantra beat teammate Ai Ogura by 0.055s in FP2 to top the Moto2™ timesheets on Day 1. World Championship leader Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was 0.311s off the pace in third, with former points leader Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) down in P15.
On his sixth flying lap of FP2, Ogura bettered Jake Dixon’s (Zinia GASGAS Aspar Team) FP1 time by 0.059s as Chantra and Alonso Lopez (CAG Speed Up) improved their Friday morning efforts inside the top five as the sun shone at the Red Bull Ring.
Chantra, with nine minutes to go, then climbed up to P1 to make it a Honda Team Asia 1-2. And on his next flying lap, the Thai star went 0.588s quicker than Ogura as plenty of improvements were being made across the board. Fernandez cut that advantage down to 0.323s before Ogura was just 0.055s off his teammate’s effort with four minutes left, with fourth place Dixon yet to improve on his 1:35.000 in FP1. From then on, no one would be able to beat Chantra’s time.
Provisional Q2 places
Behind the ATC alumini 1-2 and the Championship leader, Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) grabbed P4 in the closing stages as both the Italian and fifth place Lopez demoted Dixon down to P6. Cameron Beaubier (American Racing) is seventh ahead of FP3 and it joined in the top 10 by Fermin Aldeguer (CAG Speed Up), Filip Salač (Gresini Racing Moto2™) and Jorge Navarro (Flexbox HP40). The last four riders currently on to move through are Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Italtrans Racing Team), Albert Arenas (Zinia GASGAS Aspar Team), Joe Roberts and Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team)… leaving Championship challenger Vietti down in P15 and looking for a way through.
There’s plenty on the line in FP3, so tune in for that from 10:55 (GMT+2) before qualifying from 15:10!
FRIDAY: TOP 3
1 Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) – Kalex – 1:34.353
2 Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) – Kalex – +0.055
3 Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) – Kalex – +0.311
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