Redding heads timesheet in first practice

Britain’s Scott Redding set the pace as Moto2™ free practice began in France on Friday morning. The Marc VDS Racing Team rider led Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro, Interwetten Paddock Moto2’s Tom Luthi and Espargaro’s championship-leading teammate Esteve Rabat.

As a bright day began to warm up, Redding set a best lap time of 1’38.809, which beat Espargaro by less than a tenth of a second. Luthi made the top three as last year’s race winner, while Rabat was almost half a second off the quickest time. Nico Terol was fifth for Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 from Italtrans Racing Team’s Julian Simon.

The top ten was completed by Simoni Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert), Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Racing) and leading French rider Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project). Britain’s Gino Rea made his 2013 debut with a privately-entered FTR bike, as Kyle Smith (Blusens Avintia), 2012 Moto3™ race winner Louis Rossi (Tech 3) and Xavier Simeon (Desguaces La Torre Maptaq) all escaped either off-track excursions or falls into the Le Mans gravel traps.

Moto2™ will return with second practice from 3:05pm local time (GMT +2).

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