Hafizh is fastest of the rookies

was not a perfect session by any means, but Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah did enough to emerge as the fastest MotoGP rookie in the second free practice (FP2) at the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin on Friday.

The Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider settled for 20th in FP1 on two minutes and 8.819 seconds as he adjusted to riding the Circuit of the Americas on the YZR-M1 but improved by 2.6 seconds in FP2, clocking 2:06.219s for a respectable 16th.

Hafizh, however, believed he could have been even faster if not for an accident which forced him to slow down towards the end of FP2.

“I felt really good in FP2, we improved a lot. Eventually I had some great sensations. By the end of the session, I was very close to Tom Luthi, but Takaaki Nakagami crashed in front of him, so we both had to slow down,” said Hafizh.

Rain is expected in Austin today, and while Hafizh is known for his wet weather skills, which have earned him the nickname Pescao (fish in Spanish), he is keen on it staying dry.

“I hope the weather stays like this and we can get closer to the front in the course of the weekend.”

Teammate Johann Zarco, who notched his first podium of the season in Argentina earlier this month, struggled to find his pace and was 13th (2:05.933s) in FP2.

Suzuki Ecstar’s Andrea Iannone topped the timesheets in FP2 with a 2:04.599s effort.

Meanwhile in Moto2, Khairul Idham Pawi of Idemitsu Honda Team Asia was 29th in FP1 (2:15.847s) and FP2 (2:13.795s) while rookie Zulfahmi Khairuddin (SIC Racing Team) was also 31st in FP1 (2:18.176s) and FP2 (2:15.152s).

In Moto3, Adam Norrodin of Petronas Sprinta Racing clocked two minutes 21.044 seconds for 11th in FP1 but dropped down to 20th in FP2 (2:19.689s) as he experimented with setup changes.