Ajo Motorsport rider sets his best lap of the weekend in third and final Free Practice session, ending Friday in sixth.

Zarco, Qatar Moto2 Test 2016

The Losail International Circuit welcomed back the Moto2 riders on Friday for the last Free Practice session of the Qatar GP. The intermediate category grid prepared their bikes for qualifying and the race itself, over the course of a single 45-minute session. Reigning Moto2 World Champion Johann Zarco was able to lower his best time from Thursday and, with a 1:59.682 lap, placed sixth in the Friday runout.

The atypical schedule for the opening weekend of the season gave the Moto2 field only one opportunity to go out on track on the second day of the Qatar GP. The Free Practice session was used by Johann Zarco to improve on his fastest lap for the third straight session, and take a further step forward with setting up his Kalex. Very satisfied with his pace on used tires, the Ajo Motorsport rider still wants to improve his feeling with new rubber. His antepenultimate lap -a 1:59.682- earned him sixth in the session and seventh on the combined timesheet.

Tomorrow will see the first qualifying session of the season, held from 6:55pm -local time-. Last year, Zarco took second place on the starting grid at Losail.

Results (Combined practice time FP1-FP2-FP3)
1. Sam Lowes (Kalex) 1:59.262
2. Thomas Luthi (Kalex) 1:59.473 +0.211
3. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Kalex) 1:59.517 +0.255
4. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 1:59.544 +0.282
5. Jonas Folger (Kalex) 1:59.566 +0.304
7. Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) 1:59.682 +0.420

5 JOHANN ZARCO

“The free practice session went well today -better than yesterday. The position was worse, although my lap time was better, which is important. The aspect to improve now is riding with new tyres, with which I’m not lowering my times as I would like. However, it is very positive how fast I’m going with used tyres. I need to control this to have a good qualifying session and get a place on the front row, so that I can have a good first part of the race. All in all, it has been a positive day, another step forward with our lap times and consistence. I need to understand the bike better; it has very good potential but I’m not getting the most out of it yet.”