Having ridden well at Valencia last week, Frenchman Johann Zarco was on the pace again at Jerez on Tuesday.

As the Moto2™ field gathered for another three day test, this time in the south of Spain, they encountered cool and windy conditions in the morning at the Andalusian venue.

Zarco’s timesheet topping lap came in the final session of three 70-minute outings over the course of the day, as the Ajo Motorsport rider went round the Jerez track in 1’42.817 on the Kalex.

Behind Zarco, Briton Sam Lowes was second quickest on his Speed Up Racing machine as he prepares for his second season in Grand Prix competition. Lowes lapped 0.112s off Zarco’s rapid pace.

In third place on the timesheet was Paginas Amarillas HP 40 rookie Alex Rins who is showing good signs in preseason ahead of his debut intermediate class campaign. Rins’ best time came in session two.

Rins’ teammate Luis Salom was fourth best, 0.293s off P1 pace with his fastest lap registered in the final session of the day.

German rider Jonas Folger goes into the new season as a Moto2 sophomore and he was fifth quickest overall on Tuesday with a 1’43.298 lap on his AGR Team Kalex.

It was not an ideal day for Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS) as he crashed just after midday and ended up sixth fastest (+0.494s) overall. Rabat also suffered three crashes last week at Valencia and will aim to cut out the errors over the next 48 hours.

A Kalex dominated top ten was completed by Mika Kallio (Italtrans Racing Team), Xavier Simeon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2), Axel Pons (AGR Team) and Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten). Of those top ten riders only Lowes with the Speed Up chassis was not on a Kalex.