Luca Lunetta breaks the lap record to top the fourteen riders, all of whom advance to Q2 tomorrow. The Moto3 Practice session was full of moments that had already rippled from the morning and will likely leak into the rest of the weekend. Read on for all the Moto3 Practice results and action as it unfolded.
Drama Before It Began
The first practice session of the weekend in Moto3 began at the Cathedral of Speed in the Netherlands following a dramatic Friday morning. The earlier session had been red-flagged after several riders crashed due to oil leaking from a damaged bike all over the track. This incident created a domino effect for the rest of the morning sessions as the already wet track was cleaned.
However, the afternoon session was the one that counted for gaining an advantage in qualifying. Riders Álvaro Carpe, Riccardo Rossi, Ángel Piqueras, Cormac Buchanan, and Eddie O’Shea were the riders who fell victim to the late session carnage. Thankfully, all riders were unharmed and were good to join the afternoon Practice, including Rossi, after the medical team cleared him to ride.
Thirty-Five Minutes On the Clock
The Moto3 Practice session got underway on time with much drier conditions despite the dark clouds looming overhead. Buchanan was first out of the box after his stunning high-side save in the morning session.
The Kiwi remained unshaken and ready to improve his earlier time, although he spent a good portion of the session last on the grid. It was more bad news for O’Shea as he came off the bike again with no chance of returning for the rest of the session. David Muñoz was a little luckier as he ran off at Turn 5 but was able to come back onto the track.
Down to the Wire
With ten minutes left, eyes were on David Almansa as he came out of the pits and was ready to maintain his position as fastest in Practice. With less than five minutes left, however, the yellow flags came out when the Spaniard crashed. There appeared to be a lot of dawdling and bunching up as several riders slowly returned to the track. That will undoubtedly be reviewed with potential penalties to come.
Two minutes remained, and the drama played out as some struggled to pull up in corners, running wide and forcing others off the track. Carpe couldn’t get a lap in to place him in the advancing Q2 group, but Muñoz, Dennis Foggia, and Jacob Roulstone all set fast enough laps after the checkered flag to put them in the Top 14.
Moto3 Q2 Advancers
- Luca Lunetta
- David Muñoz
- Joel Kelso
- José Antonio Rueda
- Valentín Perrone
- David Almansa
- Scott Ogden
- Dennis Foggia
- Adrián Fernández
- Riccardo Rossi
- Jacob Roulstone
- Nicola Carraro
- Guido Pini
- Ángel Piqueras
Now, with both wet and dry track experience at the TT Circuit Assen, the Moto3 paddock has ample data to make adjustments overnight for the Saturday sessions. There are a couple of incidents that have occurred in the paddock and at Turn 9, which are currently under investigation. Could that help or hinder Carpe? We’ll find out when we cover the Moto3 Qualifying sessions tomorrow.