Britain’s Danny Kent kept his Moto3 title aspirations on course in practice at Phillip Island today despite some rain and mechanical issues throwing some spanners in his works.
Miguel Oliveira finished on top of the combined timesheets ahead of Kent and Jorge Navarro on a rain-affected Friday at Phillip Island.
The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider topped Friday’s practice with a 1’37.209 and set his time in the morning before rain affected FP2 in the afternoon, meaning a number of riders failed to improve their times as the day progressed. Oliveira’s time was therefore still over a second off Alex Marquez’s outright lap record of 1’36.050, but good enough to see him beat Leopard Racing’s Kent into second by 0.210s.
The British rider, who is guaranteed to lift the title on Sunday if he wins or finishes in second, also set his fastest time in FP1 before being side-lined in FP2 with clutch problems and failing to complete a lap.
“Overall we are second placed in the combined time sheets but there could have been a lot more of positive things to tell because we just were able to use FP1 to our utmost whilst we couldn’t do any laps during the second session due to a material defect at the clutch,” said Kent.
“So we need to find out what the problem is. In any case, during this morning’s first practice, I had quite a good feeling and we know the areas where we can improve. I think things are looking good, so we just need to explore the reason for the problem in order to get ready for tomorrow.”
Estrella Galicia Marc VDS rider Jorge Navarro left it until late in FP2 when the track had dried to set his fastest time, which was good enough for third. Brad Binder also improved in the afternoon to finish fifth fastest, ahead of Kent’s team-mate Efren Vazquez and Romano Fenati (+0.682s) on the Sky Racing Team VR46 KTM in sixth.
John McPhee (SAXOPRINT RTG) ended the day in 16th, while Fabio Quartararo (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was 26th on his return form injury. Joan Mir, who is substituting for injured Hiroki Ono in the Leopard Racing team, was 30th.
