Sandro Cortese showed no sign of slowing by setting the Friday free practice pace at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix, ahead of Nicolas Terol and Johann Zarco.
Intact Racing Team Germany’s Cortese led the way in the second practice outing with a best time of 1’38.530, three tenths quicker than his morning time to place him at the top of the combined times for the day. Terol (Bankia Aspar) was again second in the charts, following the German rider by 0.178s after an improvement of two tenths over his morning time, while Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) stepped up to third with a lap of 1’39.104.
The wind picked up for the afternoon session which saw the lightweight bikes produce slightly lower top speeds, although about two thirds of the field were able to improved on their lap times, with the biggest steps coming from Adrián Martín (Bankia Aspar),who improved seven tenths to end the day fifth in the field, and Alberto Moncayo (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) jumping eight tenths from his morning time to land six for the day, while Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) was unable to improve his pace and his morning time of 1’39.132 set him fourth.
Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing) went wide in turn eight in the second outing, touching the grass and sliding out in a high speed tumble but was up and walking away immediately though his bike was damaged enough that he was unable to rejoin, thus finishing seventh for the day. Danny Webb (Mahindra Racing) also crashed out and missed much of the session, finishing the day in 14th place.
Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) landed eighth, with Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) 0.239s behind the German rider while Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) recovered from a crash in FP1 to take the tenth spot just seven thousandths of a second ahead of Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo).
