Brad Binder and Jorge Martin took part in the first two free practice sessions of the weekend on Friday at Misano.

After two weeks away from the racetrack, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team returned to action on Friday at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, where the 13th round of the 2019 Moto2 World Championship is taking place this weekend. Jorge Martin improved his times from FP1 in FP2, on a tough day for his teammate Brad Binder.

The South African had a difficult start to the San Marino Grand Prix weekend, crashing on his first lap in FP1. He was then unable to take any further part in the session due to the damage sustained to his bike. On the other side of the box, Jorge Martin improved his pace over the course of the session, setting faster lap times on each run. The Spaniard registered his personal best – 1:39.564 – on the last of 18 laps completed to end FP1 in 18th position.

In the afternoon, Brad Binder worked hard to make up the kilometres he had not been able to complete in FP1 and was one of the most active riders on track, putting in 19 laps. Finally, the South African finished 22nd, with a personal best of 1:39.279. For his part, Jorge Martin improved on his morning time by more than half a second, stopping the clock at 1:38.956 to end FP2 in 16th position. The Spaniard suffered a crash without any significant consequences at turn 13 on his last lap of the day.

Both Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders will aim for an automatic Q2 slot in FP3 on Saturday morning before the two afternoon qualifying sessions, which will respectively take place at 3:05 pm (Q1) and 3:30 pm (Q2) local time.

Combined practice times (FP1 – FP2)
1. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) 1:38.325
2. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 1:38.374 +0.049
3. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Speed Up) 1:38.463 +0.138
4. Tetsuta Nagashima (Kalex) 1:38.473 +0.148
5. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Kalex) 1:38.494 +0.169
16. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:38.956 +0.631
23. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:39.279 +0.954

41 BRAD BINDER

“I’m feeling better than I expected after the crash in the morning. My back hurt a bit, but when I got back on track I felt alright. The start of FP2 was good, although on the second run I had quite a lot of problems and I was unable to improve. When I tried something different, I didn’t get much benefit from it. However we have to bear in mind that we missed all of FP1 and that took its toll. Tomorrow we will continue to work hard.”

88 JORGE MARTIN

“It was a very tough day. In the morning it took me quite a while to get comfortable, but in the afternoon we were able to improve a bit. We have taken a step forward, although there is still a lot of work to be done. We need to get some more grip on the rear, because I’m much more confident with the front. We have to push if we want to get into Q2, because the start of the race is very important at this track.”