Manuel Gonzalez led Moto2 World Championship practice Friday afternoon at Lusail International Circuit, in Doha, Qatar. Riding his LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex on Pirelli control tires, the Spaniard lapped the 3.34-mile (5.38 km) road course in 1:57.073, topping the field of 28 riders.
Spanish veteran, Aron Canet was second-best with a time of 1:57.095 on his Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO Kalex. Daniel Holgado did a third-fastest 1:57.136 on his CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team Kalex.
American Joe Roberts finished Friday afternoon’s practice session 22nd with a best time of 1:58.063 on his OnlyFans American Racing Team Kalex.
More, from a press release issued by Dorna:
Gonzalez returns to the top in Moto2™ Practice, Dixon crashes. 22 riders covered by less than a second, it was a hard-fought Practice session for the intermediate class and there were some fresh faces avoiding Q1 for the first time.
The all-important Moto2 Practice session is in the books for the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar at Lusail with the top 14 moving into Q2 directly whilst the rest fight it out in Q1. Taking top spot come the close of the session, Manuel Gonzalez (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) who snatched top spot with a late lap, seeing him back on top after an Americas GP to forget.
In an action-packed final stint of the session, Gonzalez rocketed to top spot just ahead of Aron Canet (Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO) who was also able to move up to take P2. Daniel Holgado (CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team) was P1 going into the final five minutes but was relegated to P3 but still managed to come away with one of his best results of his rookie season. Completing the top four is Deniz Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo), who improved to be just less than a tenth away from top spot.
Albert Arenas (ITALJET Gresini Moto2) was the long-time leader but took the chequered flag to claim P5 and like Holgado, put in one of his best performances of the year. Zonta Van Den Goorbergh (RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP) was sixth and another rider who impressed, ahead of Barry Baltus (Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO) and Marcos Ramirez (American Racing Team), with the Spaniard a late improver. David Alonso (CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team) goes into Q2 directly for the first time in his rookie Moto2™ campaign with P9 whilst there was late drama for Championship leader Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) who crashed in the closing stages at Turn 15 but was able to walk away OK; he rounded out the top ten.
Scraping through into the top 14, Alonso Lopez (Team HDR Heidrun), Adrian Huertas (Italtrans Racing Team), Mario Aji (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) and Darryn Binder (ITALJET Gresini Moto2) complete the order for the riders who managed to avoid Q1. Major names without the same advantage include Senna Agius (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) and Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team), both 17th and 18th.