Lowes third as Nakagami tops day one at Jerez

Takaai Nakagami has topped the timesheets on day one of the final Moto2 and Moto3 pre-season test at Jerez, but the surprise performance of the day was British rookie Sam Lowes, who finished the day in third place.

Lowes was only 0.341 behind the Honda Asia Kalex of the Japanese rider, with former 125GP champion Thomas Luthi splitting them on his Suter to leave three manufacturers in the top three.

However, with the Marc VDS squad of Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio and the Mapfre Aspar team of Nico Terol and Jordi Torres all absent after testing last week in Australia, the test is far from a final representation of how the season will shape up.

Londoner Gino Rea finished the day back in 23rd place, riding in considerable pain after x-rays showed that his foot, smashed up a couple of weeks ago at a Valencia test, remains broken.

Testing continues for another three days, with bikes on track from 10am until 6pm Spanish time for the next two days.

1  30  Takaaki Nakagami  Kalex   1:42.587       
2  12  Thomas Luthi   Suter   1:42.790  0.203  0.203
3  22  Sam Lowes   Speed Up  1:42.928  0.341  0.138
4  39  Luis Salom   Kalex   1:42.958  0.371  0.030
5  15  Alex De Angelis   Suter   1:43.019  0.432  0.061
6  5  Johann Zarco   Caterham Suter  1:43.141  0.554  0.122 
7  7  Lorenzo Baldassarri  Suter   1:43.299  0.712  0.158 
8  77  Dominique Aegerter  Suter   1:43.368  0.781  0.069 
9  60  Julian Simon   Kalex  1:43.441  0.854  0.073 
10  94  Jonas Folger   Kalex   1:43.521  0.934  0.080 
11  11  Sandro Cortese   Kalex   1:43.559  0.972  0.038 
12  3  Simone Corsi   Forward KLX  1:43.564  0.977  0.005 
13  54  Mattia Pasini   Forward KLX  1:43.579  0.992  0.015
14  40  Maverick Viñales  Kalex   1:43.666  1.079  0.087
15  21  Franco Morbidelli  Kalex   1:43.697  1.110  0.031 
23  8  Gino Rea   Suter   1:44.274  1.687  0.130