A return to Mugello brought a return to the top of the times for Marc VDS' Sam Lowes as practice for the Moto2 ItalianGP began in earnest on Friday.

Perfect weather heralded a perfect start for the Brit as he dominated FP2 for the third race in a row, his stunning last-lap-attack commanding the standings with a 1’51.385.

“It was a really good day, and I was able to improve a lot this afternoon” Lowes said as FP2 concluded.

Impressive from the off, the 30-year-old set the fastest lap on four separate occasions throughout Friday morning’s FP1 while working on rear tyre options and front-end settings, before his ultimate 1’52.004 saw him end the opening session in third.

Needing only three laps of FP2 to improve his pace from the initial practice, Lowes continued to refine his settings and rhythm before his final hot-laps saw him in charge once again, ending the day 0.184s faster than Raul Fernandez in second place. 

“I was fast with used tyres and that’s positive” Lowes explained. “We tried a new setting on the front of the bike and that gave me a much better feeling, so I’m happy with my pace on the first day. 

“The track temperature was quite hot this afternoon and I managed to find some good feeling. We can still find some better front feeling tomorrow but we’ve got some good data to look at tonight that should help us improve.”