Submitted by Zara Daniela on
A familiar picture from Le Mans was waiting for the opening act of the racing weekend: rain. The riders gingerly took to a damp track in chilly temperatures to make the most of the track time available.
A slowly drying track towards the end of the session threw in some unusual names at the top of the timesheets, with wet specialist Adam Norrodin taking top position in FP1. He was followed across the line by Niccolo Antonelli, the Italian putting in a late fast lap to end up less than half a tenth off the leader.
A further four thousandths of a second separated Andrea Migno from his compatriot, with Gabriel Rodrigo getting some confidence back after a tough time due to injury and finishing the session fourth.
Marco Bezzecchi was another noteworthy name in fifth position and top Mahindra in FP1, with other two Italians behind him, Nicolo Bulega and Lorenzo Dalla Porta taking sixth and seventh position.
In a tentative re-enactment of the return of the prodigal son, Danny Kent briefly led the session before dropping back to eighth position, a tenth and a half behind the leader.
If John McPhee was looking to bounce back after the disaster of Jerez, it was a mixed start, the Scotsman leading the timesheets for much of the session before sliding out in turn three in the final six minutes of the session and dropping back significantly to fourteenth place.
Podium regulars like Joan Mir, Jorge Martin or Romano Fenati did not feature heavily in the session, playing it safe and not pushing too much on the wet track.
Results:
Pos. | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap 1st | Prev. |
1 | 7 | Adam NORRODIN | Honda | 1'51.468 | ||
2 | 23 | Niccolò ANTONELLI | KTM | 1'51.508 | 0.040 | 0.040 |
3 | 16 | Andrea MIGNO | KTM | 1'51.512 | 0.044 | 0.004 |
4 | 19 | Gabriel RODRIGO | KTM | 1'51.611 | 0.143 | 0.099 |
5 | 12 | Marco BEZZECCHI | Mahindra | 1'51.624 | 0.156 | 0.013 |
6 | 8 | Nicolo BULEGA | KTM | 1'51.629 | 0.161 | 0.005 |
7 | 48 | Lorenzo DALLA PORTA | Mahindra | 1'51.652 | 0.184 | 0.023 |
8 | 52 | Danny KENT | KTM | 1'51.668 | 0.200 | 0.016 |
9 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | KTM | 1'51.732 | 0.264 | 0.064 |
10 | 44 | Aron CANET | Honda | 1'51.782 | 0.314 | 0.050 |
11 | 36 | Joan MIR | Honda | 1'51.959 | 0.491 | 0.177 |
12 | 33 | Enea BASTIANINI | Honda | 1'52.026 | 0.558 | 0.067 |
13 | 14 | Tony ARBOLINO | Honda | 1'52.125 | 0.657 | 0.099 |
14 | 17 | John MCPHEE | Honda | 1'52.137 | 0.669 | 0.012 |
15 | 84 | Jakub KORNFEIL | Peugeot | 1'52.293 | 0.825 | 0.156 |
16 | 58 | Juanfran GUEVARA | KTM | 1'52.322 | 0.854 | 0.029 |
17 | 24 | Tatsuki SUZUKI | Honda | 1'52.518 | 1.050 | 0.196 |
18 | 40 | Darryn BINDER | KTM | 1'52.689 | 1.221 | 0.171 |
19 | 21 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Honda | 1'52.706 | 1.238 | 0.017 |
20 | 71 | Ayumu SASAKI | Honda | 1'52.783 | 1.315 | 0.077 |
21 | 88 | Jorge MARTIN | Honda | 1'52.841 | 1.373 | 0.058 |
22 | 95 | Jules DANILO | Honda | 1'53.042 | 1.574 | 0.201 |
23 | 5 | Romano FENATI | Honda | 1'53.126 | 1.658 | 0.084 |
24 | 11 | Livio LOI | Honda | 1'53.217 | 1.749 | 0.091 |
25 | 96 | Manuel PAGLIANI | Mahindra | 1'53.394 | 1.926 | 0.177 |
26 | 75 | Albert ARENAS | Mahindra | 1'53.692 | 2.224 | 0.298 |
27 | 41 | Nakarin ATIRATPHUVAPAT | Honda | 1'53.764 | 2.296 | 0.072 |
28 | 65 | Philipp OETTL | KTM | 1'53.999 | 2.531 | 0.235 |
29 | 6 | Maria HERRERA | KTM | 1'54.065 | 2.597 | 0.066 |
30 | 42 | Marcos RAMIREZ | KTM | 1'54.093 | 2.625 | 0.028 |
31 | 27 | Kaito TOBA | Honda | 1'55.036 | 3.568 | 0.943 |
32 | 4 | Patrik PULKKINEN | Peugeot | 1'55.153 | 3.685 | 0.117 |