Fermín Aldeguer ended with the best time in the practice sessions for the Moto2 Malaysian GP. The third session, held on Saturday in Sepang, was the one where almost all riders set their best lap times, despite two interruptions with red flags.
The first neutralization occurred early on, following a heavy crash by Izan Guevara (Inde GasGas Aspar/Kalex) in turn three when no rider had set a timed lap.
After the red flag, Alonso López (Beta Tools SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) was the fastest, returning to the top of the table with his next lap after Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo/Kalex) and Filip Salac (QJMotor Gresini/Moto2) led for a while.
Next, Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia/Kalex) took the lead, which he held when the second red flag came out. This was caused by a nasty crash by Darryn Binder (Liqui Moly Husqvarna IntactGP/Kalex) in turn one, which even required repairing the air-fence barriers, causing a lengthy neutralization.
When the session resumed, for another 17 minutes, Chantra stayed in front until, in the final minutes, Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) began a sequence of three fast laps that put him in the lead. The Spaniard overtook the Japanese rider by 0.546s with a lap time of 2m05.319s. Jake Dixon (Inde GasGas Aspar/Kalex) was third, with Acosta in fourth, and Arón Canet (Pons Wegow Los40/Kalex) in fifth.
In terms of direct qualification for the second qualifying, Manuel González (Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team/Kalex) secured the last spot with the 14th time of the session and in the combined of the three practices. Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo/Kalex), in 15th, missed out on Q2 by 0.041s. Among others who will have to go through Q1 is Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS/Kalex), the only one who can prevent Acosta from becoming champion tomorrow.
P3 timesheet:
Combined standings P1 + P2 + P3: