MotoGP Mandalika: Dixon dominates Friday’s Moto2 action

Aspar’s Jake Dixon finished Friday action in charge of the Moto2 standings after setting the only 1’35 lap at the Mandalika Circuit.

QatarGP winner Celestino Vietti maintained his impressive showing on the Mooney VR46 in second, half a second back of the Brit’s standout time, with Marc VDS’ podium sitter Sam Lowes claiming third. Despite his ongoing wrist issues, Lowes started his Indonesian weekend strongly, leading the way as the Intermediate class took to the Lombok layout for the first time on Friday morning,

The Elf rider utilised the final drying minutes of a damp session to hit the track on Dunlop slicks, dominating the pace over a second clear of his nearest rivals with a 1’44.439 effort.

American Joe Roberts sat second on the Italtrans Racing machine with Tony Arbolino keeping in touch with his Marc VDS teammate for third, albeit 2.4s off. Vietti maintained his front-running form in fourth with second Brit Dixon rounding out the top five on the Inde GasGas Aspar in the challenging conditions.

Just 18 riders set a qualifying time in the opening 40-minutes with Simone Corsi and Albert Arenas the first outside of the 105 per cent margin as the session concluded.

The afternoon provided further potential as dry and bright conditions greeted the 30 runners for FP2. Filip Salac claiming the first crash of the day as his Gresini slid out at turn two on his first flying lap.

Times instantly bettered those of FP1 as the hot laps began to register. Pedro Acosta outmanoeuvring Lowes at the top from the outset as the pair circulated a tenth apart with the KTM rookie on 1’38.033 pace. Dixon was the next to strike as the Brit took charge with the first 1’37 of the day, Acosta bettering almost instantly as Aron Canet took