Italian rookie Romano Fenati was the quickest Moto3™ rider around Jerez on Monday, the first of three days testing at the circuit, leading the more experienced Maverick Viñales and Danny Kent.

Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI) was the fastest Moto3™ rider at Jerez on Monday, as the Italian rookie led more experienced counterparts on the timesheet with a best lap of 1’47.414. The young Italian, competing on a Honda FTR in his debut World Championship campaign in 2012, was joined under the 1’48” marker by just one other rider, last year’s 125cc Rookie of the Year, Maverick Viñales (Avintia Moto3).

At 0.341s off Fenati, Viñales was the sole rider within half-a-second of the Italian who himself admitted at the conclusion of the day that he had been surprised at the pace he had set on the opening day. Viñales’ time was set in the morning session, when the Moto3™ riders shared the track with their Moto2™ counterparts.

Red Bull KTM duo Danny Kent and Sandro Cortese occupied third and fourth positions respectively, Kent the last rider to get within a full second of the impressive Fenati at 0.660s down on the Italian.

The rest of the field was bunched more closely, with Malaysian rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin (AirAsia-SIC-Ajo), Hector Faubel (Bankia Aspar Moto3) and Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0,0) separated by little more than a tenth of a second from positions five through to seven.

Completing the top ten on day one were Luis Salom (RW Racing), Alberto Moncayo (Bankia Aspar Moto3) and Alexis Masbou (Caretta Technology), with 2011 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup runner-up Arthur Sissis 13th and Brit Danny Webb (Mahindra Racing) in 14th.

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