2017 Brno Moto2 FP1 Result: Oliveira Steals It At The Flag

The weather continued to leave an impression on the Czech circuit, the intermediate class having to get up to speed after some weeks at the beach on a soaked drizzly track that seemed to only get worse.

Miguel Oliveira and Alex Marquez were the first riders to find their feet and exchange top position on several occasions but more challengers joined the party as the session progressed. Hafizh Syahrin lived up to his nickname and swam his way into the lead in the final ten minutes of the session but found a serious challenger in Simone Corsi on the Speed Up machine. The Italian’s position looked secure until Oliveira gave it another go just as the checkered flag dropped, the KTM rider snatching top spot by four tenths of a second.

Corsi had to settle for second, with Xavi Vierge making a late jump into the top three, half a second down on the leader. Syahrin was only a tenth behind the Spaniard, with junior Marquez another tenth behind the Malaysian rider. Marquez’s gap of seven tenths of a second to Oliveira was the final time posted within a second of the Portuguese rider.

Pecco Bagnaia was outside that benchmark but still scored a respectable sixth spot, one hundredth of a second ahead of Tom Luthi in seventh, with Isaac Viñales and Sandro Cortese another two tenths down.

Championship leader Franco Morbidelli took his time in posting more competitive times but eventually made the jump to fourth. He looked set to challenge for the lead before crashing out in turn 11 in the final two minutes. The Italian was unhurt but was pushed back to tenth position as late improvers made their mark.

New boy Joe Roberts did a great job in tricky conditions, grabbing fourteenth position only a tenth of a second down on Mattia Pasini - the Italian ranking twelfth - and narrowly ahead of Moto3 champ Brad Binder.

Forward Racing’s Lorenzo Baldassarri was back from his scary crash in Assen and eased back into the day job, posting fifteen laps for a twenty-second position, three spots ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, the Japanese rider proving quite anonymous during the session.

Results: