Dixon dominates, Augusto defends himself and Ogura, without rhythm

The British Jake Dixon (Kalex) was in charge of setting the tone at the end of the first day of free practice for the Moto2 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, while world leader, Spaniard Augusto Fernández (Kalex) defended himself well and his most direct rival in the fight for the title -they came a point and a half apart-, the Japanese Ai Ogura (Kalex) had trouble finding a good rhythm.

Dixon led in 1:33.767, ahead of Spaniards Fermín Aldeguer and Alonso López, on the tracks of Boscoscuro, with Augusto Fernández in seventh place and Ai Ogura in late seventeenth position, more than 1″3 in behind the British and 1″1 seconds behind the championship leader.

The second Moto2 practice session began with news of the Race Direction stewards panel penalizing Alonso López (Boscoscuro) a “long lap” for the Australian race for “irresponsible driving” in the first free practice sessions.

López entered inside a curve already tracked by Italian Celestino Vietti (Kalex), unaware of the presence of the man from Madrid and the “contact” between the two was inevitable, sending the Italian to the ground. pilot and allowed the Spanish.

And certainly the rider from Boscoscuro was the first to lower his morning record to go from eleventh to fourth place in a time of 1:34.889, putting him less than two tenths of a second behind world leader and the fastest in the category until then. wait, Augusto Fernández (Kalex).

Meanwhile, in the workshop lane, other riders had problems at the start of the session, as in the case of the Spanish Albert Arenas (Kalex), who had to return to his workshop with technical problems with the front brake on his motorcycle that forced the he had to wait a “precious” time for his mechanics to resolve it and after they seemed to resolve it, had to give up going out on the track again.

The British Sam Lowes (Kalex) was the first “bend” the leader of the day by 144 thousandths of a second, but in his wake Alonso López, who towards the finish line marked 1:34.530 helped to him. to be leader 30 thousandths ahead of the British.

López chained a second fast lap on the following lap, clocking 1:34.324, which allowed him to consolidate first place in the batch, although he still had almost half an hour of practice ahead of him, which was clear which leaves the door open to an impressive record improvement before it ends.

After overcoming all the technical problems, Albert Arenas managed to get off the track, being one of the few who did not lower his time in the morning, along with the Czech Filip Salac, the Italian Tony Arbolino, the Dutch Bo Bendsneyder and the Spaniard Aron Canet, all with Kalex.

British Jake Dixon (Kalex) was the first to break the barrier of one minute and 34 seconds to complete a lap of the ocean track by stopping the clock in 1:33.767, where he “endorsed” at least half a second to his immediate pursuer, who is still Alonso López.

A little behind, Aron Canet managed to shave a few tenths of a second off his personal time to move up to sixth place, just ahead of Augusto Fernández and with minutes to go in the Moto2 session.

In the end, no one beat the record of Jake Dixon, who lapped alone in 1:33, although the two Boscoscuro drivers, Fermín Aldeguer and Alonso López, came a little closer with American Joe Roberts (Kalex ), the British Sam Lowes and the Spanish Arón Canet and Augusto Fernández behind them.

Arenas, after overcoming all the front brake problems on his motorcycle, was tenth, with Pedro Acosta eleventh, and Jeremy Alcoba (Kalex) in eighteenth place, Manuel “Manugas” González ( Kalex), nineteenth, Jorge Navarro (Kalex) , twenty-first, and Marcos Ramírez (MV Agusta), twenty-fourth.