Moto3 Jerez FP1: Niccolo Antonelli starts the weekend strong

Niccolo Antonelli took the top spot overall in the FP1 Moto3 session.

Qatar podium finisher Niccolo Antonelli has kicked off his Jerez race weekend in fine style leading the first session of the weekend in the lightweight class, the Italian Moto3 veteran leading the way after a solid start to the season which saw him pick up a podium in Qatar, he leads fellow veteran Gabriel Rodrigo in second place finishing just 0.169 seconds ahead of him.

The younger riders are coming up thick and fast though and are causing issues for the ‘old men’ of the class, an example of this is Swiss rider Jason Dupasquier, he struggled last year as a rookie scoring 0 points but this year is really starting to show what he’s about and is impressing many finishing in third place ahead of Jaume Masia and Deniz Oncu, Oncu will be desperate for some luck this weekend after starting the season with many crashes and pit lane starts.

Last time out we saw Pedro Acosta and Dennis Foggia go head to head in Portimao scrapping for the win down to the last lap, the Italian Foggia was eventually bested by the inexperienced but fast rookie Acosta leaving Foggia in second place, this week he will be looking to do better taking P6 in FP1 ahead of Migno in P7 who was also on the podium last time out.

Darryn Binder finished only 0.332 off the top time leading Stefano Nepa and Romano Fenati.

Further down we see the title leader Pedro Acosta place in P13 with Artigas in P14, Jeremy Alcoba was the 20th fastest rider.

Full results: