Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing Moto2) put a morning crash behind him to bounce back and head the field in FP2 for the Gran Premio bwin de España. However, Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) remained the fastest rider on Friday in Jerez in the combined times of the two practice sessions.

The afternoon session was held in ideal weather conditions, hotter than FP1 but with strong winds which affected the times set. The Japanese rider’s best lap from the afternoon was 1’44.044 which was nearly six-tenths slower than the Swiss rider’s best lap from the first session.

Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) battled to second fastest after a difficult session which saw him sit out the majority of it with mechanical issues. The reigning 125cc World Champion was 15th fastest in the morning session so improved his lap time in the second session and was just 0.095s off the fastest lap time set in FP2. The rookie finished third at Jerez in the 125cc race in 2009, the only occasion he has reached the finishing line at this circuit. With eight Spanish riders in the field, third quickest was Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) who was 0.109s off Takahashi who has been a previous pole sitter at the Andalucian track.


Lüthi was fourth fastest, ahead of another Spaniard Aleix Espargaró (Pons Racing) who had put in consistently quick laps after leading the session for some time. Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) was close behind in sixth, the Italian rider has yet to finish in the top ten here in Jerez.

Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing) had topped the timesheets earlier in the practice and ended up seventh fastest. British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) repeated his eighth place from earlier in the day and finished ahead of the current Championship leader, Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing). The final spot in the top ten went to Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2). The top 20 riders were covered by one second.

In the final ten minutes there were a string of crashes, de Angelis, and young Spanish rider Ricky Cardús (QMMF Racing Team) both had mishaps, sliding off track, but managed to pick up the bike and return to the pits. Max Neukirchner (MZ Racing) had a big off at turn 4, which ended his session and it was the same fate for Raffaele De Rosa (G22 Racing Team) whose bike was damaged in the gravel causing an early finish for the Italian.