Joe Roberts stormed to the quickest time in second Qatar practice for Moto2, securing a new intermediate class lap record at Losail in the process.
The American saved his best until last, posting his rapid effort of 1:58.421 in the closing minutes of the session to put himself over two tenths clear of anyone else, while also lapping 0.214 faster than Lorenzo Baldassarri’s ’19 lap record in the class.
Marco Bezzecchi continued to show strong pace with the second fastest time, just shading VR46 team-mate Luca Marini in third.
Tetsuta Nagashima was Ajo Motorsport’s highest representative in fourth, while Xavi Vierge managed to put in a stronger showing that FP1 to round out the top five.
Augusto Fernandez led the session for a considerable chunk, the Marc VDS man pipping then Nagashima to the top spot by just 0.007 on a 1:59.074.
He crashed at Turn 5 shortly after though with just over ten minutes remaining on the clock, therefore having to retire from the session early and ultimately slipping to sixth at the chequered flag.
Bo Bendsneyder impressed meanwhile for the NTS factory squad with seventh on the leaderboard-six tenths down on Roberts’ benchmark- ahead of Enea Bastianini’s Italtrans-prepared Kalex.
Nicolo Bulega and Jorge Martin completed the top ten for Gresini and Ajo respectively.
FP1 leader Thomas Luthi suffered a torrid FP2 session in stark contrast meanwhile, crashing twice- at Turns 2 and 14 respectively- and managing only 11th on the timesheets as a result.
Remy Gardner was another to go down during the session, the SAG Racing man the victim of a nasty high-side on acceleration out of Turn 1.
He landed hard on the tarmac, ripping his visor from his helmet in the process, but fortunately walked away-seemingly without injury.
Sam Lowes was back out after managing a handful of laps in first practice, lowering his deficit to the leading time to just 1.1 seconds-enough for 19th overall.
It’s currently unclear as to whether he will continue in FP3 tomorrow morning, owing to the shoulder injury that forced him to miss last week’s pre-season test.
