At the start of the first free practice session for the Moto2 class at the Red Bull Indy GP, season leader Toni Elias had his eye on Andrea Iannone, Julian Simon, Simone Corsi, and Thomas Luthi. One rider that he was probably not expecting stiff competition from, was Scott Redding.
Redding has not qualified higher than tenth this season, but he put in a shockingly fast lap at the end of the first free practice session to oust Elias from the top spot. The 17 year old Brit showed the season leader just how fast he was today, putting in a 1’46.728 lap time, edging out Elias by just 15 thousandths of a second. Redding put in his confidence boosting time on his 22nd and final lap of the free practice session.
There's still a lot of racing to be done before Redding will get to try for some points. But the young Brit will try to carry his confidence over to the Moto2 race on Saturday, where he will try to beat his best finish in Moto2 to date, which was fourth at Silverstone.
Andrea Iannone finished third behind season leader Toni Elias. Iannone, who currently sits 55 points behind Elias, would finish .125 seconds behind Elias in the first free practice session at Indy.
Simone Corsi had a solid outing today. He claimed the fourth place position and was the final rider to place under the 1'47 mark.
Behind Corsi, there were another 13 riders to place within a second of Redding. Most notably, wild-card Jason DiSalvo took the ten place spot in front the American home crowd. DiSalvo recently split with the Triumph team in the World Supersport series, and is now trying his hand at Moto2. He'll have to do better in the race on Sunday if he wants to impress anyone, but a tenth place showing is a solid start for the Wild Card.
Fellow American and Wild Card participant, Roger Lee Hayden, didn't get his Moto2 weekend off the way he wanted, but still showed some speed on the Indy track. Hayden lost some valuable time with a mechanical error, but was still able to finish within 1.3 seconds behind Redding, although it was in 23rd place.
Moto2 - Indianapolis - Free Practice 1
| Pos. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott REDDING | GBR | Marc VDS Racing Team | Suter | 1'46.728 | |||
| 2 | Toni ELIAS | SPA | Gresini Racing Moto2 | Moriwaki | 1'46.743 | |||
| 3 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Fimmco Speed Up | Speed Up | 1'46.868 | |||
| 4 | Simone CORSI | ITA | JIR Moto2 | Motobi | 1'46.885 | |||
| 5 | Julian SIMON | SPA | Mapfre Aspar Team | Suter | 1'47.055 | |||
| 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Viessmann Kiefer Racing | Suter | 1'47.230 | |||
| 7 | Sergio GADEA | SPA | Tenerife 40 Pons | Pons Kalex | 1'47.317 | |||
| 8 | Raffaele DE ROSA | ITA | Tech 3 Racing | Tech 3 | 1'47.382 | |||
| 9 | Gabor TALMACSI | HUN | Fimmco Speed Up | Speed Up | 1'47.394 | |||
| 10 | Jason DI SALVO | USA | GP Tech | FTR | 1'47.435 |
