MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

With the line-up for the two qualifying sessions already decided on Friday afternoon, the lightweight class had a more carefree – but by no means slow – start on Saturday.  Although it made no difference for proceedings, the same names gravitated towards the top of the timesheets for a second day in a row, but this time led by Jose Antonio Rueda with brand new lap record set in the latter stages of FP2. Adrian Fernandez also joined him under the old benchmark in second position, with Stefano Nepa sneaking into the top three in the final seconds of the session. 

Joel Kelso had to drop a position late on, completing the top five alongside David Almansa, while Alvaro Carpe impressed as the top rookie in the session, in 6^th place at the chequered flag. Dennis Foggia’s return to the class shows promising signs early on, with a 7^th position on Saturday morning, ahead of compatriot Luca Lunetta. David Muñoz in 9^th place was half a second off the leader’s time, while Ryusei Yamanaka completed the top 10. 

Friday’s leader, Matteo Bertelle, had a bit of a tougher start on Saturday – although he was not too far off the business end of the timesheets in 11^th position, his session ended with a minor tumble in the final few seconds of the action. Guido Pini was another of the standout rookies in FP2, settling in 12^th position after featuring even higher at times throughout the session. 

Some of the surprises lower down the order included Angel Piqueras struggling to break into the top positions – not helped by a track limits infringement that saw his best time cancelled and dropped him back down to 19^th place – and a subdued Taiyo Furusato ending the session at the very bottom of the pile, nearly two seconds slower than the leader. 

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