Cold weather and mixed track conditions greeted the Shark Grand Prix of France on opening day at Le Mans, though the Moto2 class was fortunate enough to get two dry sessions in on an otherwise day of changing weather. Americans Cameron Beaubier, in his first visit to Le Mans in 10 years, and Joe Roberts ended the FP2 session in 23rd and 28th, respectively.
The day began with iffy but dry track conditions in FP1 with American Racing Team’s Beaubier ending the session in 23rd with a best lap of 1:38.884 while Roberts competed FP1 in 29th with a best of 1:39.767.
Conditions improved for FP2 and thus so did the lap times. Of the two MotoAmericans it was Beaubier leading the way after bettering his time by .829 of a second. His spot on the timesheets, however, stayed the same and he finished the day 23rd.
Italtrans Racing Kalex’s Roberts took 1.3 seconds off his best from FP1, improving to a 1:38.458, though that kept him in 28th. The Californian, however, would have been much higher up the timesheets, but he had several of his fast laps taken away by yellow lags. Roberts also suffered a lowside crash to end his day when at least eight riders hit the deck at various places in the waning moments of FP2. With the weather expected to change for the worse on the weekend, it’s likely that both Beaubier and Roberts will have to try to advance to Q1 from Q2 tomorrow.
The day was led by Elf Marc VDS Racing’s Sam Lowes with the Brit lapping close to Francesco Bagnaia’s lap record of 1:36.188 with his 1:36.307 from FP2.
