Advantage Aldeguer, Acosta third despite crash

Fridays don’t get much better than that for Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp) as the Spaniard dominated Moto2™’s Day 1 proceedings at the MotoGP™ Guru by Gryfyn Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

The #54 set an impressive 1:32.548 to finish 0.138s clear of second place Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40) on the combined timesheets, as both the latter and Championship leader Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo), third overall, suffered late crashes at Turn 4.

After a fearless pair of geese put a brief halt to Moto2™ Practice 2 on a fine Phillip Island afternoon, most of the fast lap action came towards the end of the second session. Acosta’s small tumble came inside the final five minutes at Miller Corner as the title-hunting Spaniard went in search of a personal best time, and a couple of minutes later, Canet suffered the same fate. Both riders were perfectly okay.

In the end though, Aldeguer remained unchallenged as the top three head into Saturday’s action 0.455s apart. Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) is P4 after the opening day in Australia, the Briton just over half a second shy of Aldeguer’s pace, with Manuel Gonzalez (Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Team) fifth.

Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team), Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Sergio Garcia (Pons Wegow Los40), Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools SpeedUp) and Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) are inside the top 10, while Izan Guevara (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team), Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team), Marcos Ramirez (American Racing) and Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team’s Bo Bendsneyder currently occupy provisional Q2 spots in the top 14.

Moto2™ will be back in action on Saturday for Practice 3 at 9:25 and qualifying at 13:45 local (GMT +11).

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