Scott Redding dominates Le Mans practice

British rider Scott Redding’s stunning start to the 2013 world championship campaign continued in Le Mans today when the Marc VDS Racing rider dominated the opening day of Moto2 practice.

Redding had already controlled this morning’s FP1 in sunny but extremely cool conditions to top the timesheets with a lap of 1.38.809 when he improved to a 1.38.283 this afternoon to head the leaderboard by almost 0.4s.

Redding, who is currently second in the world championship standings after scoring two podium finishes in the opening three races, finished a comfortable 0.371s clear of Thomas Luthi, with current series leader and Jerez winner Esteve Rabat struggling down in 14th spot.

Rabat, who holds a slender one-point advantage over Redding was almost a second off the Gloucestershire rider’s best pace today, while pre-season title favourite Pol Espargaro also struggled in France today.

The Spaniard could only finish seventh on the combined timesheets and he was the only rider in the 34-strong field not to go faster in FP2.

Londoner Gino Rea made an impressive return to action to set the 20th best time. Running a self-funded FTR  machine, Rea set a best time of 1.39.753 to finish just under 1.5s behind compatriot Redding in what his first competitive track action since the final round in Valencia last November.

Danny Kent’s struggles on the Tech 3 Mistral 610 continued and he was 25th quickest today with a best time of 1.40.024.